


Property Tags

by HeartOnATrigger



Series: I'm Clearly Not The Role Model Type [1]
Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Logan, BAMF Rogue, Charles Being Concerned, Charles Is Everyone's Father, F/M, Gen, Love, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-07
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-01-14 02:49:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 44,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1249927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartOnATrigger/pseuds/HeartOnATrigger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Logan never left the school after the incident with Magneto, not after Rogue begged him to stay. Now he struggles with controlling his feelings for the teenage mutant while protecting her from another threat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rogue manages to make Logan stay at the school, and Logan finds out that he's required to pull at least half his weight if he wants to stay with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.

* * *

Damn it.

He's the Wolverine, for Christ's sake. He wasn't supposed to feel guilty when given the puppy dog look. He wasn't supposed to stay here. It wasn't supposed to be this way. But it was. And there was nothing he could do about it.

It all started back in Laughlin City, when he'd picked up---or did she pick him up?--- a teenage girl on the side of the road. _No_ , it wasn't for the reasons your dirty mind thought of. He really did just plan on giving her a ride just to the next city. Originally, he was going to drive off. But somehow, his eyes had met hers in the mirrors and he angrily stomped on the gas, letting her climb in. Everything just escalated from there. Instead of giving her to the professional babysitters and heading on his way to salvage what he could from his beat up trailer, he ended up staying in that school, fighting Magneto, and now, he got caught red handed with his hand on the door knob.

Silently, Logan cursed. He was quiet, he was sure of it. It wasn't something he did on purpose; it was one of the perks of being a feral, as the X-Men put it, making him easier to adapt and survive and go unnoticed in any given environment Obviously they'd never seen Rogue in action. 

"Ya runnin' again?"

Logan turns slowly, almost painfully, hiking the bag higher up on his shoulder as he looked down into her eyes. Her big, doe brown eyes. He winced internally, feeling a sharp pang of guilt twist at his cold heart. He nibbled on the inside of his cheek a little before he answered, "I have some things I gotta take care of up north." 

She nodded, but still disapproved greatly.  
"Do you have to go?"

"Kid-"

"I don't want you to leave the school."

The real meaning was as clear as crystal to him: _I don't want you to leave **me**._

 _Damn her_ , Logan thought, _for making me feel like I owe these people something, like I have a place here. I'm an animal, and yet one little sixteen year old girl was turning him into mush just by looking at me._ Logan took of his dog tags and handed them to her. He was going to leave, he decided. He wouldn't be destroyed by her. He simply refused.

"I'll come back for these," Logan says, stepping back, smiling at her. She smiles back sadly, and it hurts him to see the tears in her eyes, the disappointment she felt. 

Rogue put the tags around her neck, the metal squares hanging between her breasts.

When Logan left the mansion, he only made it ten feet before turning right back around.

* * *

"Back so soon, Logan?" Charles grins from his wheelchair. "What about up north?"

"I have time, don't I?'

"I suppose you do," Charles says slowly, peering at Logan suspiciously. "Any reason you came back here? Don't tell me it's because of my charming personality."

Logan glares, still holding his backpack, and inching slowly towards the patio door, where he could see Rogue sitting with two other girls in the grass, although there was some distance between them. "I figured I could take advantage of a place with free food and a shower for a while."

 "Of course you did," Charles says softly, maneuvering his chair around Logan and into the hall, towards his office. "I'm sure that was your only reason."

Logan glared at the man's back, but didn't argue, because they both knew it was true. Secretly, Logan hated the kid for making him like this in such a short amount of time. Its been a long time since he's cared about someone, and it usually took a few years or blood, sweat, and tears for Logan to consider someone a friend. But she---Rogue, Marie, whatever---had managed to weasel her way into his heart in just a few days. 

He was so fucked.

* * *

 

He didn't go out into the garden to see her. Instead, he headed up to his old room and unpacked. He wondered if she wore the tags he gave her, then mentally kicked himself for wanting something from a sixteen year old girl when he could be at least in his eighties---that's as far as Jean could trace back with her medical equipment. Or as far as she got before Logan got impatient and walked out of her lab shirtless and cheerfully giving her the bird. She had cursed him under her breath. Eh. He didn't think she was all that anyways.

Logan left his room to escape his thoughts, and perched himself on the outside balcony after he was sure Rogue wasn't out here. He decided to surprise her that night at dinner, where he knew everyone in the school gathered like one big happy family. He didn't have to wait long. He was probably outside for ten minutes when everyone started heading towards the grand dining room, where a long tables were set up with fancy looking chairs with plastic covering.

Huh, Logan thought. Maybe Chuck is finally getting the picture.  
(Having nice things like fancy furniture was hard in a house full of kids. In a school for mutants? Ha, it just became impossible.)

Logan managed to squeeze next to Rogue in line, effecitvely scaring the daylights out of her and almost breaking the arm of the Cyclops in training. What was his name? Bobby? 

Rogue, after essentially getting over her shock and controlling her breathing again, glared up at him, someone making her tiny face into his trademark Wolverine glare. Logan smirked in response, and reached over her to grab the spoon for the spagetti. He piled some more on her plate and her eyes narrowed.

"You're too skinny," he shrugged, walking around her and slapping an even larger amount of food on his plate. What? He was hungry. It'd been a while since he had something besides beer and granola bars. 

"Didn't you say you had something to take care of up North?" Rogue inquired, managing to look cool and collected, although, in her head, she was almost leaping with joy that Logan came back so soon.

"Honestly?" Logan asked. "I didn't make it past the driveway."

Rogue grins, and forgets about the friends she made as she followed Logan to a table in the corner, sitting across from him and putting her feet in his lap. 

Scott growled under his breath at the sight of them, as if they were two best friends catching up. Professor shot him a warning look. 

"Leave them be, Scott."

"He was going to leave her," Scott shot back, quickly pulling himself into line when he remember who, exactly, he was talking to. "Besides, a man like him surely isn't sticking around because he wants to be her friend."

"Logan didn't make it past the driveway," Professor remarked. "And if you have concerns about their relationship, you can always go ask them about it." 

Scott casts a glance over his shoulder to see Logan staring at him. His eyes darkened, pupils widening, and Logan slowly slid one metal claw out of his hand as he smiled at Scott, a smile with all teeth. Scott shuddered and turned back around. He slouched. "I still don't like it."

* * *

There was a staff meeting in Professor's office while the students played outside in the yard. Logan almost followed Rogue outside when Charles called after him to join the rest of the adults. Grumbling, Logan stared over the Professor's head outside the window to keep an eye on Rogue, who was sitting with the two girls from yesterday, the distance still between them. 

When Scott came into the office, his smile immediately turned into a glower. "Why is he in here? He's not staff."

"You think I wanna be here, Phaserface?"

Scott and Logan almost had a one on one battle right there when Jean broke it up, glaring them both down. Scott backed down instantly but Logan was harder to break. He wasn't about to let himself fall to his knees at the hand of another female ever again. Unless that female was Rogue. Then he'd suck it up and go down like a champ.

"Logan has recently enlightened me that while his stay here, he gets free benefits," Charles began, and Scott felt himself light up, catching on, eyes wide and rubbing his hands together eagerly. Logan hated what was to follow. "So, I do think its time for him to start pulling his weight around the mansion, don't you think?"

"I agree completely," Scott says readily, smiling at Logan with excitement.

Logan stared at the Professor, mouth wide open, and he felt his lungs shrivel from the lack of oxygen. Storm and Jean agreed with the Professor, but neither wanted to get on Logan's bad side. They saw what he could do at the Statue of Liberty. No one was really all that excited to meet death at the hands of a man with two pairs of nine inch metal claws. Nope, not today, hopefully not ever!

"I don't think so," Logan snarled, crossing his arms defiantly. "I refuse your most gracious offer."

"Well, then I'm sure you can remove yourself from the property as soon as possible, right? Your room can be put to good use."

The threat hidden in the simple statement got to Logan, he had to admit. If he was removed from the mansion, he'd never get to see Rogue unless she wanted to sneak out to seem him or if he sneaked in. And obvious Charles was snooping through his head, because the Professor arched an eyebrow and said, "It won't work, I assure you. Even with your.....feral tendencies blocking most of your thoughts, I'll still be able to hear you coming."

"What would I have to do?" Logan grumbled. "I don't do teaching. Or kids. Especially not kids. I hate kids."

"You like Rogue," Jean murmured, and Logan quickly turned on her.

"I don't recall asking for your input, Red," Logan snapped. 

Storm cut in, "Maybe he can teach Physical Education. You saw what he could do at Liberty. Scott can't do any of that." She ignored Scott's cry of protest. "Logan could help with training the future X-Men."

"Perfect," Professor grins. "Logan, Storm will show you to the Danger Room and explain the controls. She'll also explain the school curriculum and answer any questions you might have."

"But---"

"Have a nice day, Logan!"

* * *

"This is the Danger Room," Storm points as she leads Logan down a hallway. "These are the locker rooms. Do make sure Kitty doesn't try anything funny. She can walk through walls, and we're often busy with the task of making sure she isn't trying to catch a glimpse of the boys naked."

"So, basically, I'm a babysitter? Wasn't this Scott's job?"

"We've been meaning to hire more teachers anyways," Storm explains. "We're getting more and more kids every year, and we have already starting thinking about expanding the mansion for more rooms. There are rules to follow with how many teachers we need to have in comparison to children. And, let's face it, Scott's too tame to do any of the damage you did to Sabertooth."

Logan's lips twitch at the corners, and he almost finds himself smiling at the storm goddess.

"Why'd you stick up for me?" Logan inquired. "You don't know me."

"Rogue," Storm says simply. "When she came here, she seemed like the kind of person who's been used to being alone for a long time. People keep their distance from her out of fear, discrimination, and lots of other things. You either don't care or just like the adrenaline rush. Out of everyone here, out of every other sane, non-killing machine adult here, she trusts you. Of all people. And although I am concerned for her absurd judgement of people, I respect that you and her are in a relationship of some sort."

Logan decided her liked her, her spunk and ability to speak her mind without fear. He didn't know if it was just because she was a naturally honest person or something else entirely. Storm stared back at him, unnerved by his gaze. 

"I think I like you," Logan says casually, gesturing towards the other end of the hallway. "Well, show me the rest of the mansion. Guess I'll be sticking around for a while."

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan spends some time with Rogue and has a little "discussion" with Scott

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.

Logan had just stepped outside to smoke a cigar when Rogue appeared beside him. He didn't even flinch at the sudden intrusion, only smiled at her attempt to sneak up on him. She glared at him for a while before they both turned to stare out at the sunset, enjoying the comfortable silence. They were both aware of the lack of space between them, maybe five centimeters at the most. 

Frowning, Logan reached a free hand up to thread his fingers through the white streak in her dark hair. He hated on he'd been too late to prevent her any type of harm. At least the only things she received from the metal helmet bastard was the white streak and a thin streak of his personality.

Rogue's face turned bright red at the proximity, but she didn't move, having been away from human contact for so long. Logan was the only one who dared to touch her like this. She wanted to lean in to his touch so bad, yearning for him more than she should; she knew it could never be. Besides, its not like Logan thought of her in that way anyways. She was just a kid, as deemed by his nickname for her. But for now, she was content, having him like this. She knew no one else could get as close to the Wolverine as she could, and that was enough for now. Maybe even forever.

"What're you thinking about?" Logan murmured around his cigar, fingers still twisting and curling her hair, the back of his hand almost brushing against her cheek. He didn't jerk away. It was as if he didn't notice. 

"You and Dr. Grey," Rogue grinned, although she secretly despised the red head. "You like her?"

Logan scoffed. "I don't think this is a talk I want to have with you, kid, but, no, I don't like her. Its just funny to get a rise out of One-Eye, the little shit. I gotta get my kicks from somewhere."

She didn't show it, but she was deeply pleased that Logan admitted to not actually having any sexual attraction or interest in the beautiful older women. Yes, Jean was with Scott, but if Logan really wanted to, he could sleep with her. The fact that he didn't spoke volumes.

"I thought you liked her," Rogue shrugged as casually as possible. "You gave her a nickname."

Logan laughed.  
"You have a nickname, too."

"I'm not a kid!"

"In comparison, you are a kid. I'm much older, so everyone younger than me in considered a kid."

That made her feel slightly better at his explanation.  
"So what am I to you, besides a friend?"

Logan hesitated slightly, and she saw something shift in his eyes, a flash of longing, before it was gone as quick as it came. 

"You're Rogue, darling."

"Marie," she whispered, staring up at him through dark lashes. Logan wouldn't admit it, but he did swoon. Just a little bit. 

"Marie," Logan said back, slowly taking his hand from her hair, daring to quickly brush his fingers against her cheek before pulling away, and taking out a new cigar. 

They huddled together on one of the cold lawn chairs, Rogue----Marie, now----sitting on Logan's leather jacket and wearing his scarf, tucked against his side.

* * *

Scott watched the entire scene unfold from the gardens. He risked freezing to death to try and get a glimpse of their strange relationship. He couldn't hear them from this distance, of course. He wasn't that kind of mutant. But he did see Logan's contact with her. Really, deep down, Scott meant well. His inner boy scout was telling him to be suspicious of the relationship of a teenage girl and a mutant man who's age was unknown but who looked to be in his thirties. And, you know, he just really hated Logan. It may or may not have something to do with Logan's recent flirting with Jean. Its not like it was entirely Logan's fault; Jean flirted back. Oh, did she flirt back. 

Scott remembered the way she flipped her hair, eyes sparkling, revealing some of her chest in an unknown gesture. She'd never done that for him, unless goaded into sex. Was he really that....what was the word Logan had used? Ah, boring! No, of course he wasn't boring......right? Right? Someone say right!

Shaking his head, Scott watched in outrage as Logan stroked Rogue's cheek, but only briefly. He didn't like being left out of the loop. Did the Professor know that their was something strange about the relationship the two shared? Maybe it had something to do with them being the odd one out all the time. Rogue seemed to make other friends, starting with Kitty and Jubilation Lee, who everyone dubbed Jubilee. He'd even seen Rogue talking to Bobby, John, and Piotr, although John seemed to be terrorizing her instead of welcoming her to the neighborhood.

After ten minutes of sitting outside, Scott wondered if he was ever going to be a chance to talk to Logan about Rogue. Dinner was in a few minutes, and Rogue shouldn't be outside for so long, not after ruffing it for the past few months and being exposed to sickness. Yeah, he had a protective streak over mutants, especially the ones who had pasts almost like him. 

 _Finally_ , Logan said something to Rogue, and she rose from the lawn chair and away from the warm embrace of Logan's strong, muscular arms, and snatched up his leather jacket, putting it on and running inside before he could stop her. Logan watched her, grinning, and, you know, looking at her ass. 

When Logan didn't follow her, Scott strode quickly over to the balcony and climbed up on the ledge. Logan didn't look surprised to see him.

"You get off on spying on people, Summers?"

 _Shit_ , Scott thought. _I forgot he had the nose of a bloodhound and the ears of a bat._

Straightening himself, Scott placed himself by the patio's glass doors, wanting to be in the open in case Logan decided to gut him.

"I wasn't spying," Scott replied. "I was simply..... _observing_."

"Right," Logan said slowly, narrowing his eyes. "Was there something you wanted?"

Suddenly, Scott found himself at loss for words. Logan could smell his fear from five feet away. Scott's throat was dry, his lips cracked, and he realized he actually feared talking to the feral man. He, like everyone else, saw what Logan could do at the Statue of Liberty. He wasn't exactly eager to piss the man off, knowing that Logan wasn't one to bluff, and that he would, most certainly, give Scott a throat full of metal. 

"One-Eye," Logan snapped, "I ain't got all day. What do you want?"

Gathering the courage, Scott said, "I wanted to talk to you about Rogue."

"What about her?" Logan's tone had dropped and turned dangerous, a signal to stop while you can, but Scott was already rambling on.

"I wanted to clarify your relationship with her. Obviously there's something unhealthy. She needs to be with people her own age, and people of your age shouldn't be conversing and snuggling with teenage girls. You don't even know your age, which makes the situation even worse. And then there's the chance that you'll show favoritism to her in class, a class you aren't even qualified to be teaching. I just think that there shouldn't be any kind of intimacy between you and-"

Logan was out of his chair, cigar stomped out, and had his claws out, Scott pressed against the glass wall before he could even finish his sentence. Scott gasped for air, clawing at the thick hand wrapped around his neck. Behind him, through the glass, he could hear students screaming for someone to help him. Logan leaned in really close, his breath smelling of smoke and beer. 

"You listen real close, you little shit," Logan growled. "You say something like that again----you even _imply_ anything about our relationship----and I will rip your dick off and shove it so far up your ass, you'll be sneezing out semen. Understood?"

When Scott nodded, Logan let him go and disappeared inside, angry, the crowd parting to make room for him.

* * *

"Would you like to explain to me why you tried to kill Scott, Logan?" 

Charles hadn't let Logan go to dinner, and it only angered Logan more to be away from Rogue. No doubt she'd heard about his attack on Scott. Logan stared back, emotionless, leaning back into a comfortable position in his seat. 

Logan shrugs.  
"He provoked me."

"And that's a reason to threaten someone the way you did? Is that even possible?" When Logan opened his mouth to say that he would make it possible, the Professor cut him off. "No, I don't want to know. Logan," he sighed. "I don't want to separate you from Rogue. You must control your anger better. Even the children question your relationship, which is rather strange."

"I don't remember asking what anyone else thought, Chuck. Besides, Rogue is my responsibility. I made her a promise."

"And are you keeping that promise, Logan?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Logan demanded angrily. "Of course I am! Magneto hasn't gotten his grubby little hands on her again, has he? Its not like any of your kids here could take care of themselves in the real world. You teach them how to be diplomats when, in reality, its survival of the fittest. So, go ahead, let Scott go back to teaching the class nothing but bullshit. But do know that when I leave, Rogue is coming with me."

"She isn't you-"

"Its her choice. Are you going to pull a Magneto and hold her hostage?" At the Professor's frustrated silence, Logan nodded in triumph. "Well, alright then. I'll be seeing you, Chuck."

Logan left the room, but didn't feel any better. Who were they to tell him that he couldn't take Rogue with him when he left? It was her choice, of course, but Logan honestly hoped she chose him over these geeks any day. A part of him felt incredibly selfish for wanting to take her away from her friends and an education, something he could never give her. This was as close to a normal life she would ever have again, and uprooting her from a place of potential happiness made his stomach twist with guilt. Sighing, he entered the dining hall, skipping over the food set out, flashed Scott a predatory grin, and then looked for Rogue.

He found her sitting with some other kids, and then he realized he needed to start learning some names or give them nicknames or something because right now its just a sea of meaningless faces. Rogue didn't see him yet, but her friends did. They tensed. Logan leaned down to whisper in her ear, scaring her and making her jump.

"I gotta talk to you, kid."

She nods, rising from her seat, but Logan shakes his head, telling her to sit back down. "What?"

"Not right now. Finish eating. Before curfew I'll find you."

"Okay," she said, and looked a little disappointed that she couldn't go with him now, but quickly brightened as she introduced him to the people at her table. "This is Bobby, John, Kitty, Jubliee, and Piotr."

He jerked his head up in a nod, eyeing Kitty, who stared at him flirtatiously. Rogue noticed and quickly went on the defense. 

"Oh, he's way too old for you, Kitty. He already has gray hairs."

"Excuse me?" Logan gaped. 

"How old are you?" Kitty asked.

"Old enough to be your dead great-grandfather."

"Aw, man," Kitty grumbled, glaring at him before turning back around to talk with Jubliee, who had watched the exchange in amusement. John was smirking at Bobby, who was giving Rogue the puppy love look. Not that she noticed, of course, since she was too busy staring at Logan. They seemed to be having some kind of private conversation without even opening their mouths, and Bobby realized that he was jealous of the older man, simply because he was able to do things with Rogue. Rumors had been floating around about why Scott and Logan got into a fight. It ranged from fighting over Jean to Logan touching Rogue the wrong way. Personally, Bobby wouldn't put it past Logan to do any of those things, because he seemed like the kind of guy without morals.

"Why don't you sit?"

"I have a reputation to keep up, kid," Logan says, and Bobby realizes that Rogue had asked the question, and then he wondered why she wanted him to stay. "I can't be seen hanging out with a bunch of babies."

"You hang out with me."

"I tolerate you."

"Right. So, it was because of your toleration for me that you rescued me from Magneto?"

Logan's eyes darkened, and he glared at her, the subject obviously something that hit something inside of him.

"Besides," Rogue continued. "You tolerate Scott."

"How do you know?"

"If you didn't, he'd be dead by now."

John, Kitty, Bobby, and Jubilee watched Rogue and Logan smirk at each other before Logan cracked first, rolling his eyes and backing away.

"You know where to find me, kid. Eat your vegetables; you're too skinny."

Logan managed to leave the dining room in less than ten seconds, his long, strong legs carrying him huge distances. He disappeared.

"What's up with you and the wolf man?" Jubilee asked as soon as she was sure Logan was out of hearing range. He wasn't, but she didn't know that.

"What are you talking about, Jubilee? We're just friends."

"Right," John snorted. " _Friends_."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Rogue snapped, instantly calming herself before she got the urge to drain the life out of John's body. Hey, absorbing Magneto and Logan's mind made her a bit more homicidal sometimes. Nothing she couldn't handle. "Are you implying that---"

"Everyone's implying it, chicka," Jubilee cut her off, leaning forward, eyes shining with excitement. "Isn't that why he and Scott were fighting out on the patio? The witnesses are saying it was over his relationship to you."

"We don't have a---"

"That flirty banter says different," Kitty grins. "Crushing on an older man. That's hot. I bet he's really experienced. And well endowed. Guy like him _has_ to be-"

"Can we _not_ talk about this while I'm eating a hot dog?" Bobby yelled, causing several other kids to look over at him. John whole heartedly agreed, shoving away his hot dog in disgust. "Why is every girl here attracted to that guy anyways? What's so great about him?"

"What isn't?" Rogue blurted, face reddening. She looked away, playing with her thumbs. "Not that....I'd know anything about that."

"Oh, Rogue, you little nymph!"

"I don't know anything about that!"

Rogue rose from her seat, ignoring the accusatory glances she got from her new friends. She shrugged. She threw her trash away, including her vegetables, which she didn't eat, and waved to the group. She went out the same reason Logan came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rogue and Logan have a talk, and Logan once again ponders if he really wants to go up North.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.

"People are getting concerned," was the first thing Logan said when Rogue came out to meet him in the gardens. He was right; she knew where to find him without actually following him or being given directions. 

"About what?" she asked, closing the distance between them, now only two inches away from him. "You haven't don't anything wrong."

"Yeah, well, Scott's convinced that I'm corrupting you or something. And me attacking him on the patio didn't make me look any better."

"So the rumors are true? The fight was over me? Why?"

Rogue rubbed her arms to fight the goosebumps. Logan saw and gave her his leather jacket again, not upset that she had stolen it earlier. It had done wonders for his ego to see the kid wearing his stuff, his scent all over her, not that there were any other ferals around to tell. But, hopefully, the jacket did a good job making the horny teenage boys weary, and within good reason.

Logan frowned, reaching up to twist a finger around the white part of her hair again, for the second time that day. He remembered her, dead, at the Statue of Liberty, holding her close, and pressing a kiss against her lips. Did she feel him? Did she even remember? Did she care to acknowledge it?

"What's wrong?" Rogue asked, wrapping a gloved hand around his wrist. "What are you thinking about?"

"You," Logan grunted, "dead at the Liberty."

"You saved me!"

"Just barely, kid. Barely."

"Logan---"

 _You're all I have, kid. You know that_ , is what is wanted say to her. Buts instead, he quickly jerks his hand away from her face, taking a step back. He clears his throat. "One-Eye is worried about our relationship," he says. "He thinks I'm going to make you a whore or something---"

"Scott said that?" Rogue couldn't keep the hurt out of her voice, and it made Logan want to hunt Scott down and give him a taste of adamantium. 

"Well," Logan sighed. "he implied it. He thinks I'm destroying your chances at a normal life, or as normal a life one could have living in a house full of mutants." Logan looked away. "Maybe he's right. You shouldn't be hanging around a guy like me-"

"Stop." Rogue's voice was forceful, but it still cracked. "Don't say that," she whispered. "Take it back. Please. You-You can't leave me. You _promised_. You can't just break your promise and leave me, Logan! You promised!" She was hysterical, tears streaming down her face as she yanked at her hair, a nervous habit. Her nightmares were coming true; Logan was realizing that she was way too much trouble, and he was going to drop her. She couldn't bear to lose him, and she was afraid, so afraid of feeling something for him that wasn't platonic and finding herself unable to move on. Every time she thought she would be able to go on with her life without him, she was drawn right back in by his perfectness, his uncaring attitude towards her skin. She couldn't just let him leave her here, with people who didn't understand what it was like to lose everything and be isolated because of what you are, because of something that wasn't your fault. "Don't leave me."

Logan, uncaring about her skin, pulled her into a tight hug, the only thing keeping him from harm being his thin wife beater and Rogue wearing his jacket. Her face buried itself in his perfectly sculpted chest, and she breathed him in. He wouldn't leave her. He wouldn't. Logan wasn't the type of guy to just go around breaking promises. She was just overreacting, just a bit clingy to something familiar, the only person at the school she could truly connect with.

"I'm not leaving you, kid," Logan murmured into her hair. "It was just a suggestion."

"A stupid suggestion," Rogue whispered. "Don't do that again."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

They stayed in each other's arms for the most of the night. Later, when the curfew bell range, he walked Rogue to her room. Kids in the hall watched them, slowing their walk. Logan and Rogue didn't notice---they were in their own little world. Rogue started to give his jacket back, but he shook his head.

"Keep it," he grinned, still on cloud nine just from seeing her wearing his stuff. His dog tags still hung around her neck, the tags hidden between her breasts, but there, nonetheless. "Night, kid."

She smiled up at him, pressing her hands into fists and stuffing them inside of the pockets of the jacket. "You aren't gonna tuck me in, sugah'?" She accidentally let her southern accent creep out, but Logan didn't seem to mind. "No kiss?"

Logan smirked, and, ignoring the kids gasp, he picked up her hand, peeled the glove off, and pressed his lips to it only briefly. He tossed her back her glove, feeling slightly dizzy now, but touching her, but smiling, still. 

Rogue watched him go.

* * *

"Are you really going to tell me that you are not banging the guy?" Kitty demanded from her bed as she painted her nails. "Please don't lie to me and say you aren't hitting that, because we all know you are."

"Who is we?" Rogue snorted. "And I'm not 'hitting' anything! We're just friends, like I told you. He was just in a good mood today."

"How is that classified as a good mood when he threatened to rip off Mr. Summer's anatomy?" Jubilee raised her eyes from her magazine.

"I'm sure he deserved it," Rogue sniffed. "Besides, what Logan and I do, and what we do to each other, is of no concern to the general public." Rogue clicked off her beside lamp and snuggled under the covers. "Good night, Kitty."

Kitty simply snorted, ad Jubilee went back to her reading.

In her bed, Rogue's hand was still tingling from Logan's kiss, her mind filled with his new memories.

* * *

The next day, Logan hadn't even gotten to get a beer before Professor rolled in, interrupting his time with Rogue. Did Logan actually consider laying the smackdown on a guy in a wheelchair? Yes. Did he feel guilty about it? Not even a little bit. 

"I wanted to ask you if you've changed your mind," He said, placing his wrinkled hands in his lap, smiling calmly at the wild man. "Just a few days ago, you were asking about your past."

"Maybe its not so important anymore," Logan says, picking at his grits, no longer hungry. 

Instantly, Rogue felt guilty. Her breakdown the previous day was likely the reason he wasn't going up north anymore. She didn't want to keep him from his past. He had a right to know where he had come from, who he was, why he was the way he is. He had no memory of anything from his past, and it must have felt terrible, not knowing who you where and why you where waking up in the middle of nowhere. Swallowing her pride, she spoke up.

"You can go up north for a while if you need to, Logan," Rogue murmured. "I'll be fine. Professor will keep me company, and so will Kitty and Jubilee."

"I don't like it," Logan frowned. "I don't want you anywhere near Scott."

"I know the rumors aren't true, Logan," Professor said patiently. "I can promise you that Rogue will be in good hands. We have cell phones, and I would be more than happy to give you both one so that you may stay in touch. It is really no trouble at all."

Logan grunted, and waved a hand dismissively.  
"I'll think about it."

Taking that as a yes, Professor Charles wheeled away to join the rest of the staff, and as soon as he got himself settled and ready to eat, they started asking questions.

"What did he say?" Scott asked, all too eager for Logan to leave the school and get as far away from the students as possible. "Is he leaving? When?"

"He says he will think about it," Professor said simply, cutting his waffles and pouring a modest amount of syrup on them. "Why is it any of your concern?"

"We're all just worried," Jean admitted. "We haven't seen anything like the two of them before, and they're both unpredictable."

"I can second that," Professor sighed, taking a bite and chewing slowly, thinking. "I thought he was going to reach across the table and strangle me when I told him that his aggressive behavior was going to get him removed from the property. He wouldn't be leaving without her, it seems."

"Its her choice," Scott scoffed. "Why would she choose---"

"Look at her," Storm interjected, speaking for the first time. She nodded towards Logan and Rogue, who were smiling and laughing at something. "She's the only one who can bring out that happier side inside of him. By the looks of it, and her hesitance to make friends her own age, she's already chose---its him."

"And you support them?" Scott demanded. "Its not safe, or appropriate!"

"I don't recall them asking for anyone's opinion," Storm replied calmly. "I am simply saying that Logan is not always as violent as you believe him to be. We have actually held a conversation for more than thirty seconds, and not once did he threaten me or even pull out the claws. I think you're just upset because he managed to get under your skin and teach a better Phys. Ed. class than you."

"Ororo!" Professor gasped, although he wasn't too surprised; the weather goddess was known for being blunt, albeit a lot gentler with the truth. 

She shrugged, unashamed.  
"I'm just saying that we shouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions. I wouldn't be happy if people I didn't know just assumed I was some sort of crazy person who liked to prey on little kids."

Standing, she put her dishes in the dishwasher and left to go get ready for the day.

* * *

During lunch, Storm was grading papers, sipping a cup of tea. It was a calm day, although it would have been a lot calmer of Kitty and Jubilee were not constantly harassing Rogue about her relationship with Logan. When Rogue threatened to take her gloves off, the girls shut up and left her alone. It bothered Storm, really, that the girl had to use her mutation to scare people away and just leave her alone. But it did come handy in some cases, but it shouldn't have been given the chance to be used during school, which was supposed to be a safe environment. 

Logan appeared then, literally out of nowhere, and scaring the living daylights out of her, causing her to spill her tea. Thankfully, it didn't get on any of the papers or anything important. She frowned. 

"Sorry," Logan grunted, uncomfortable with apologizing. "I just wanted to ask you something."

"No, I'm not busy or anything," She said sarcastically, eyeing his trademark dirty jeans and flannel with a wife beater outfit. "Is that all you own?"

"I never had a reason to own anything else," he admitted. "But that's not what I came here for. I could really care less of your thoughts on my fashion style."

"Fine," Storm sighed, leaning back. "Ask away."

"I've been thinking on going up north," Logan starts. "And I was wondering if you could keep an eye on Rogue. She won't say anything if she's in pain or afraid or anything, and without me here, she'll probably get into trouble; it seems to follow her." Both of them tensed as they remembered Magneto. "I know we're not really friends or anything, but---"

"You trust me more than the others."

He nodded.  
"You're honest. I like that. And..." he lowers his voice. "I need to be able to trust one person with Rogue. The Professor is a given, but it something happens, he's not gonna be able to do what he needs to do. You saw, when Sabertooth had her and he let her go."

She didn't want to admit it, but she _did_ see it. She saw Charles, her savior, unable to rescue one his own because of his incredibly strong desire to be apart of the human world. Yeah, it would be nice to be accepted into society, but not if the risk is letting Magneto go through with one of his well thought out, elaborate schemes. She nodded. "I'll watch over her," she promised. "Don't worry."

"I suppose I should give you my thanks," Logan said, backing away, smirking.

"And why don't you?"

"If Rogue is still in one piece, and not emotionally or physically damaged, when I return, we'll see about your thank you."

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan goes of North, to Canada, to search for his past. Rogue is encouraged to go on a date with Bobby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.

As before, leaving the school---leaving _Rogue_ \---proved to be a lot harder than Logan thought. He had the motivation; the quicker he left and got his ass up to Canada, the quicker he could come back. He wondered if he'd get past the driveway this time, or if he'd be pulled back to the mansion simply because a girl wanted him there. Of course, being a traveler was in his blood---he's always on the move and never stayed in one place for too long. Briefly, something flashed in his mind, a memory of him and someone else running away from home, even though he felt young. He shook it off. This should have been easy for him, since he'd never had a problem with leaving people behind before. It was kind of his thing.

Rogue was very supportive, as usual, although she was horrible at hiding her discomfort. But it was nice that she had put aside her selfish desires to give him the freedom to go anywhere. She was still teased, and often heard other students wonder how she got the Wolverine on a leash, and if her body had anything to do with it. Implying that she was a whore did hurt her feelings, but she didn't tell Logan, although she bet he already knew. If he did know, he was being smart and not risking his chances by threatening the children's _delicate little minds_ , as the Professor claimed. She supposed it was easier this way. Like him, she knew that the quicker he left, the quicker he'd be back in her arms, or rather she in his. She still hadn't forgot the kiss he bestowed upon her hand, and it made her stomach twist just thinking about it.

"You gonna miss me, kid?" Logan asked, standing by the front door. It was a school day when Logan decided to leave. A Monday. He figured it would be better to leave during a weekday, when Rogue was busy with school and didn't have time to miss him, rather than leave on a Friday or something, where she'd be alone for three days with her thoughts. Kids passed by them, some glancing at them curiously. Kitty and Jubilee were among the crowd, and Logan spotted them. He thoroughly ignored them.

Rogue grinned, lacing her fingers through the cool metal of Logan's dogtags. She never took them off, not even in the shower. It was a good thing they didn't rust. 

"Not really," she replied, looking up at him through her thick eyelashes. She let a bit of her Southern accent slip through when she said, "Besides, sugah', it won't be long. Ya gonna be back by Friday, right?"

"Hopefully," Logan says. "And if I won't be, I'll call. If you don't answer when I call you, I'm going to assume you're in danger and come back ready to sink my claws into someone."

"So, basically, always answer the phone."

"Yes."

"What if I'm in the shower?"

"Would it be considered morally wrong if I liked listening to water run over someone's body?"

"Get out of here, Logan!" Rogue's face turned firetruck red as she shoved him out the door. She didn't really make him move; he moved by himself, rustling her hair and stepping outside. Looking over his shoulder, he called, "My jacket's on your bed. Don't get it dirty."

Rogue wasted no time running upstairs to go quickly retrieve the jacket. Even with her weaker nose, she could smell him in the jacket, the scent of cigars and beer not as noticeable as Logan's natural, outdoorsy smell he usually had. Pulling it on and rolling up the sleeves, Rogue grabbed her books and all but skip to class. Out in the driveway, Logan was wondering if he'd have to go cage fighting to get enough money for a bus ride or something. When he looked over to his right, he saw a motorcycle, the keys waiting in the ignition. 

I shouldn't, Logan thought. But I will.

Scott looked out the window just as Logan hopped on the bike and sped off. He cried out in horror at the thought of that crazy mutant taking his bike. After all, he'd seen the way the man drove back when Sabertooth attacked them by the highway. Slumping his shoulders in defeat, he turned away from the window and got ready for the day.

* * *

If anyone realized that Rogue was wearing someone else's jacket, they didn't say anything. It was huge on her, but it kept her warm and sane, when she could sniff the collar of the jacket whenever she got nervous. Hopefully no one saw her doing that. She'd never live it down. 

It was better in classes today, Kitty and Jubilee knowing where to stop pushing her buttons. She'd meant it when she said she'd touch them with her skin. But still, seeing them glance at her wearily made her long for Logan, who would have caressed her face without fear, or would kiss her hand. The memory of their goodnight in the hallway was still fresh in Rogue's mind, and it made her grin goofily in the middle of class. Luckily, she sat in the back. Shaking her head, she focused back on her work, feeling a bit slow after not being in school for almost an entire year. Its not like being a hitchhiker came with a high school diploma or anything.

"What are you smiling for?" John sneered over his shoulder at her. 

Rogue ignored him and snuggled deeper into Logan's jacket, still clinging to that warmth he seemed to radiate. She missed him already, more than she should have. She was worried that someone might catch on to her not so little crush on the older man. It wasn't simply because he saved her life. No, it was something more than that. Ever since the first day they met, she felt drawn to him. She remembered feeling terrified that he was actually going to leave her on the side of the road that day in the city, and she also remembered the joy she felt when he stopped and let her climb in. Of course, she'd been raised better than that, told not to get in the car with strangers, especially not with men, _especially_ not with older men, and _especially_ not with older men that gave off the vibe that they could rip out your entrails through your nostrils. Did she have actual proof that Logan did that? No, but he could be assumed with judgement because, really? The guy looked like some kind of vigilante or a a serial killer. Really, he could fit either description.

Staring straight ahead, Rogue sighed, already wishing it was Friday so Logan could come back. Now she'd have to deal with everyone and be social when, usually, she and Logan were antisocial together. Could it still be classified as being antisocial if they were together while simultaneously being antisocial? Or was there a different word for it? You know what? Forget it. We don't have time for this right now.

"Get in groups of three to start your projects," was what Rogue first heard from Jean----excuse her, Dr. Grey----when she zoned back in. She considered asking if she could work alone, and quickly decided against it. She knew she was being watched by all her teachers so they could see how Logan's leaving affected her. She wasn't worried that he wouldn't come back; he promised her he'd come back, so he'd be back soon, and if he wasn't back by his claimed deadline, then he'd call. Really, she was worried about him getting hurt. She knows Logan could be a bit brash and blunt, even when it was a life or death situation. It was who he was, but needed to be a bit more controlled. The adults here thought she and Logan should have some distance from each other, apparently because Logan was corrupting her already naughty mind and trying to get her to be his whore or something. Honestly, though, it was the other way around. No, Logan wasn't a.....well, he's a man-whore, which is basically the same thing, so yeah. But Rogue had Logan wrapped around her fingers. He could try and play macho and act like he was a free man, but they both knew that if Rogue said jump, he'd ask how high. "Rogue?" Jean was in front of her now, frowning. "Do you have anyone to work with?"

"She has us," Jubilee sang from behind her, and then she and Kitty pulled up chairs and sat across from her. Jean walked away, still casting glances at the girl over her shoulder. "Hey, Roguey. How are ya?"

"I could be better," she answered honestly. 

"You sad because the wolf man walked out?" Kitty asked. "Well, it was only a matter of time, really. A man like him doesn't settle down, not for anyone. And....hey, is that his jacket? Why do you have his jacket? Are you two---"

"Kitty," Jean once again appeared beside them, seemingly out of thin air. "Do your assignment. Split the work evenly. You're presenting next class."

They got to work, but Rogue still heard the words echoing in her head for the rest of class.

_A man like him doesn't settle down, not for anyone._

* * *

Even though Logan was, quite literally, freezing his ass off, he didn't regret giving his leather jacket to Rogue. He wondered if they----meaning the X-Men----had already tried to get into her head and make her believe things that aren't true. Really, he didn't trust anyone there. Storm was the most reliable, he supposed, and not afraid to speak her mind. Well, Scott wasn't afraid to speak his mind, but whenever Logan pulled the claws out, he got quiet pretty fast. Maybe those metal life takers are good for something after all.

Sighing, Logan trekked his way across the snow covered grounds, grateful that he owned a pair of water resistant snow boots.

He wondered what Rogue was doing.

_Is she thinking about me?_ he thought. _Nah, she's probably already forgotten about me. Its not like I was important to her, or to anybody---_

"Stop," he said aloud to himself. "Stop thinking like that."

Great. He was talking to himself now. Could he not have lost his last bit of sanity later, when he didn't have shit to get done? Nope, of course not. He was actually surprised were going his way for once, and he had a suspicion that something bad was to follow all his good fortune. Well, he might as well enjoy it while it lasted.

He finally reached the top of the hill. He almost screamed.

There, on top of the hill, was flat land for miles. Flat land covered with nothing but snow, trees, and more snow.

He was gonna kill Charles.

* * *

When Bobby asked Rogue to go on a date with him to the movies, she didn't answer. It wasn't because she was being rude or embarrassed. She didn't hear him. She was too busy stabbing her lunch, grilled cheese and french fries, with a fork, only taking a few bites before she deemed it worthless to try and eat while she was thinking about Logan. Yeah, she was still thinking about Logan, even after Kitty's words. If anything, it made her want to keep Logan to herself even more. Her faith in Logan hadn't faded or slipped in the slightest, but hearing Kitty question the same things she had was a bit disconcerting. 

When Bobby asked Rogue to go on a date with him to the movies again, she still didn't answer. No, it wasn't because she was trying to play dumb. She actually didn't hear him. She was too busy closing her eyes and subtly inhaling Logan's scent from the leather jacket before it faded. Honestly, she didn't even know Bobby had sat down across the table from her. Her thoughts rotated around Logan entirely, whether she wondered if he thought about her up in Canada and if he'd resume teaching the P.E. class. He was the only reason she showed up.

When Bobby asked Rogue to go on a date with him to the movies a third time, she jerked her head up and stared at him in confusion. What? Date? With her, the girl with poison skin? She must have said it out loud, because he smiled at her and poked at her gloves, and said, "I think we're pretty safe. So, uh, what do you say?"

She stared at him for a long time, calculating. She liked that he asked her out, unafraid of her skin, and even going as far as poking her gloves. However, her heart still firmly belonged to Logan. She squirmed uneasily under Bobby's intense gaze, looking down at her mangled sandwich and fries. Could she really do this? 

Well, she thought, I don't want to hurt his feelings. Besides, what's one date? Its not like we're going to get married and start having kids or anything.

Allowing a small smile, she looked at Bobby and said, "Sure. But no zombie movies."

Bobby nodded, hiding his excitement.  
"Right," he says. "No zombie movies."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave me comments so I know what you think!


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan is still up north, Jean is jealous, and Bobby is in a one sided relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.

It was cold.

Not a _slight breeze coming through to put goosebumps on your arm_ cold. No, it was _even the polar bears are shivering_ cold. Really. And even though he'd been alive for god knows how long, he still hasn't grown immune to the cold. Sadly, that wasn't his mutation. Nope. Instead, he was stuck with fast healing and metal claws.

Why did he want to come up north again? Ah, right. His past.

Walking around the snowy field, he scowled, and debated if he should light his cigar while standing this close to trees. He's already guilty of being a murderer and a potential pedophile (everyone but Rogue thinks he's some kind of sex crazed maniac). The last thing he needs on his resume was that he destroyed a government property. And, being a mutant, the government would make him look like one of those mutants who killed because it was fun. And, alright, yeah, he did occasionally get the urge to hunt people, but he had more self control than that. Or at least he hoped. 

Its hard to tell if his thoughts were safe or not these days. 

 _Is this really worth it?_ He asked himself. _Really, what is knowing my past going to do for me? All I'm going to find out is that I probably had a family, family died, long story short_. 

But....Rogue would want him to see his past. So he'd do it for her. Seems like the girl was influencing a lot of his choices lately.

* * *

Back at the mansion, Rogue was getting ready for her date. Movies with Bobby Drake, something she was taking seriously even though she didn't have any romantic feelings for him. A part of her wondered if she was leading him on, but then it was quickly squashed once she realized that this date didn't have to be anything romantic. It could be completely platonic or something. Besides, her feelings for Logan were kind of making her thoughts a little hazy.

She glanced over at the clock and saw that she had a few hours before her date with Bobby. Sighing, she sank down to the floor, her back against the wall, and closed her eyes. She reached inside her mind to find the little piece of Logan, the only piece she had right now that could talk back. But...she couldn't do it. For one, the Professor told her not to do that, since she wouldn't be able to come back to herself. Two, Logan's personality had already taken over much of her mind and body, which is a cause for her sudden X rated thoughts she randomly got. Ugh, she was so glad not to be a guy.

"Rogue?" Storm's voice rang through the wooden door. "Are you in there?"

"Come in," Rogue said.

Storm entered the room, white hair in a neat bun. She smiled hesitantly to the young girl and sat on the bed a few feet away. Rogue tensed at the close proximity. 

"I wanted to see how you were doing," Storm says. "Logan asked me to keep him updated."

"He called?" Rogue gasped.

Storm frowned. "Only once, and then he said he'd be off the grid for a few days while he hiked through the snow. He said he'd call as soon as he can. And that he plans on being back this weekend."

Rogue smiled, relaxing again at the good news. "Thanks, Storm. And....sorry for....you know, being so aloof."

"Logan explained a bit before he left," Storm said. "I know its harder for you to control your mutation, but I want you to know that even the best of us lose control some time. Scott and Jean are a few. Even I've gotten too angry and electrocuted some people. It happens. We just have to move on."

"Jean?" Rogue asked incredulously. "I doubt it."

Storm shakes her head. "Nope. Jean's had the hardest time. Of course, she has the Professor, another telepath, so it gets easier for her. That's why she's so antsy around the new kids---seeing mutants with the inability to control their mutations makes her remember how she was, when she almost destroyed her neighborhood. Her parents would have put her in a mental institution because she kept telling them about the voices in her head. And Scott? He's tore apart entire buildings. Me? I drowned a few people back when I lived in Africa. There, they called me the weather goddess before I supposedly turned evil." Storm chuckled. "I guess defending myself made me the bad guy. I think the only adult here who had total control is the Professor, but that could be because he's been aware of his mutation since he was a child and has been practicing ever since. Not everyone is so lucky."

"Why are you telling me this?"

Storm shrugged.  
"I know you're terrified of hurting someone with your skin. But that doesn't mean you can't have friends and have a normal life. Maybe we can be friends."

They share a smile, and Rogue feels happy for the first time since Logan left.

"I'd like that," Rogue says. "I'd like that very much."

* * *

"That movie was ridiculous," Bobby snorted as they exited the theater.

Rogue laughs, "Oh, please, you enjoyed it."

"Only a few parts," Bobby relented. "But the rest was crazy. How does blood even fly that far? Twenty feet?"

"You'd be surprised," Rogue shrugs.

"Thanks for coming out with me tonight," Bobby blurts, and then blushes. "I mean, I know...well, I don't really know anything about you but I'd like to...well, uh...."

Rogue allows a small smile.  
"It's fine," she says. "I wanted to come. You have guts, I'll give you that."

"How?"

"Most guys avoid me for either my skin, Logan, or both."

"Who's Logan?" Bobby looked baffled.

Rogue frowned. "The Wolverine? His name is Logan. Well, he's pretty protective."

"I've been meaning to ask you," Bobby said. "What's his deal? He hovers."

"Well, he's lived a hard life. And I'm kinda his responsibility, so...."

"Then why did he leave?" 

She purses her lips.  
"The Professor found something up north that Logan might want to see. He was going to stay and see to it later, but I convinced him it was fine for him to go on. He's supposed to be back by the end of this week."

"You two are pretty close," Bobby muttered.

Rogue didn't catch his double meaning.

"Yeah," she said, smiling dreamily. Bobby mentally sneered. "I guess we are."

* * *

"I think you're crazy," Rogue says into the phone later that night. Jubilee and Kitty watch from the balcony, peering down at Rogue as she paced the deck below.

 _"I'm crazy?"_ Logan snorted. _"Please. You're the only girl I know who would try to hitch a ride with a mutant with metal claws."_

"Well, you didn't try to maim me when you found me, so I saw it as a good sign!"

 _"Right,"_ Logan snickered. _"What are you doing up this late anyway, kid? Don't you class tomorrow?"_

"I wanted to tell you about my date."

There was silence on the other end for about two minutes before Logan spoke, his voice suddenly cold and indifferent. _"A date?"_

"Yeah, Bobby asked me out," Rogue says. "We went to this movies. It was this crazy horror comedy. It was pretty stupid. Bobby said it was impossible for blood to fly twenty feet. And....are you growling?"

_"No."_

"You're a horrible liar, Logan. What's wrong?"

 _"Nothing kid,"_ Logan murmurs. _"Look, I gotta g--"_

"Don't you dare hang up. What's your problem?"

 _"I don't have a damn problem!"_ Logan snapped. 

Rogue flinched. He'd never yelled at her before, and they both knew it. Logan sighed heavily, running a hand over his face.

 _"I'm sorry,"_ Logan whispered. _"I didn't mean to yell at you. I was just angry because I hadn't found anything up here, I didn't mean to take it out on you."_

"Its fine," Rogue whispers.

 _"No,"_ Logan says. _"Its not. I'll make it up to you when I get back, alright?"_

"Okay," she sniffs, shuffling her feet. "Night Logan. Love you."

She didn't think he'd say it back, but he did. _"Love ya too kid. Go get some sleep."_  

Neither Jubilee or Kitty missed the way Rogue's face lit up.

Jubilee whispered, "Nothing going on between her and Logan, huh? Do you believe that?"

Kitty smirked. "Of course not. Well, if she doesn't want to claim him, someone else will. Have you seen the way Dr. Grey looks at him? She wants to hit that. I bet he's an animal in the bed."

Jubilee rolls her eyes but agrees. "Come on, we gotta plan."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave comments! Sorry for the crappy chapter, btw. I'm just a bit out of it this week.


	6. Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If anyone asked, Logan simply missed the hot showers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.

If anyone asked, Logan simply missed the luxuries the mansion had to offer.

 _No_ , he was most definitely _not_ jealous.

What did he have to be jealous of? A little Cyclops-In-Training teenage boy who managed to catch Rogue's interest within the time span of five days and take her out on a date, a date where she enjoyed herself and _might_ consider doing it again? Ha! No.....of course not! 

He's the Wolverine, for Christ's sake! If he wants the little shit---Bobby, that's his name---out of the picture, he could get him out. But....

Could he really live with himself if he destroyed the once chance Rogue---no, Marie now, only Marie---had at a semi normal life?

This kid, Bobby Drake, could offer her so much more than he could. Sure, there was the issue with the skin, but obviously, if Bobby still chased after her when she's untouchable, he feels something genuine. And Logan....he was just an old man who was spending his time pining after a teenage girl, one who was starting to fill out and have the body of a woman. And, yeah, he felt something for her---although he wasn't even sure what it was, being an inner cold hearted motherfucker and all---something that made him want to protect her and make her promises. He felt a memory almost rise up from the back of his brain before disappearing again. He didn't even care.

Marie....suddenly, Scott's accusation made a lot of sense. Logan was very Alpha male, as everyone knew, and Marie trailed after Logan like a lost puppy, even on her good days (the days where she wasn't itching to whip off her gloves and suck the sense out of some of her classmates. Yes, those urges happen, don't act so surprised), and she wouldn't protest if Logan made a move on her. Actually, with her young, smitten teenage mind, Logan actually couldn't be sure what she felt towards him. He saved her life, and every time a guy saved a girl's life, she ended up falling in love with him. How did Logan know that wasn't the case right now? How could he be sure that Marie actually cared for him, and wasn't just making choices with a hazy mind because she _thought_ she loved him?

The realization made his heart twist painfully.

It was for those exact reasons that he came back a day early, on Thursday, swooped into Marie's class (Biology, taught by Storm), and interrupted without even feeling the slightest bit sorry. He didn't even have to announce his presence to Marie, because as soon as the door opened, a gust of wind blew at the same time and his scent (smelling of cigars and beer and pine trees) hit her in the face and then she was up out of her chair, throwing herself into his arms, still wearing his dog tags and his leather jacket.

And they were, you know, making a scene in the middle of a classroom filled with gossip loving little kids.

Storm smiled. "You may leave if you'd like, Rogue. Just come by later to pick up your homework."

They could have kissed Storm for this. Rogue almost knocked a kid over grabbing her books and prancing after Logan's retreating form, and they disappeared out of the classroom, the door slamming shut behind them. John turned to look at Storm.

"Uh, how come she gets to leave class just because her pimp is home?"

The class snickered. Storm smiled pleasantly.

"That 'pimp', John, has supersonic hearing and happens to be in charge of your Phys. Ed. class. I hope you are prepared for tomorrow."

With that, she left a pale John to his own devices and went back to teaching.

Logan, from the kitchen, heard every word. He smiled.

* * *

"You're back a day early," Marie smiled, playing with the hem of her long sleeve shirt. "I thought you wouldn't be getting back until Friday, Saturday at the latest."

 _I came to make sure you didn't leave me for some dumbass named Bobby,_ he wanted to say, but instead said, "Didn't find anything of importance. I guess Wheels was wrong."

Marie choked on her Sprite. " _Wheels_? Oh, he's gonna _hate_ that."

"Please," Logan grinned. "He knows he loves me. I'm like the son he never wanted."

"How does that even make sense?"

"I add excitement to his life, something Scotty Boy could never do because he has a stick shoved up his ass."

"Could you two at least _try_ to get along?"

"I despise him, he despises me. It's actually better than it could be. I could actually gut him in front of the five year olds."

"You wouldn't," Marie said slowly. 

Logan arched an eyebrow, a _you wanna bet?_

Marie shook her head and looked at him, really looked at him for the first time since he came into her classroom. She was too busy breathing him in to notice the dark circles under his eyes, the messy facial hair, the dried blood on his cheek. "Please tell me that's icing," she said, pointing at his cheek. He smirked.

"I got into a fight with a tree. I won."

They laugh, and everything is back the way it used to be, before Bobby came into the picture, before Logan left for a week, before anything complicated ruined their relationship. Logan reaches across the counter and ruffles her hair, enjoying the way she cries out in protest and quickly tries to fix it. She glares at him and swings her foot out, trying to kick him in his shin, only to hit the metal part of the stool. She hisses in pain. Logan laughs. 

"You can't catch me by surprise, darling. I'm too good for that."

"For now," Marie murmurs. "For now."

* * *

Logan resumes teaching the next day, and Scott is anything but happy. When he insists on sitting in on the class to supervise, he's thrown out.

(No, I don't think you understand. Logan literally grabbed Scott by his vest collar and tossed him out of the classroom, and almost through a wall. Mutant struggles, am I right?)

Then, when he reenters, Logan looks at his class, all of them dressed in shorts, sweatpants, and t-shirts. He approves. When he nods, he can hear each student let out a sigh of relief. He'd be happy too. Not many people get praise from the Wolverine. When he walks up and down the aisles, looking each kid in their eye---he held Marie's the longest, and he even smirked a bit for her, and his heart grinned when she smirked back---he decided. He looked at John when he said, "Today, I'm going to teach you hand to hand combat."

"Um, Mister.....?" Kitty shuffled nervously and almost broke her neck after the hard flinch she did when Logan's head swiveled around to look at her. 

Logan kept his face empty. "Don't call me 'Mister'. Just Wolverine."

Kitty swallowed loudly. "Um, Wolverine?" At his silence, she continued. "Mr. Summers already taught us--"

"Whatever that asshole taught you is useless in the real world," Logan cut her off harshly. "You need to know more than being able to run away like a little wimp. You need to know how to throw a punch. You need to know how to knock someone unconscious. Or, you can go ask for a class transfer, and risk your life in the future." He growled. "You think Mr. Summers is gonna be there to hold your hand when you're in a fight with someone like Magneto? Mystique? Sabertooth? No. You wouldn't last three seconds. They'd have slit your throat before you even know what's going on." He narrowed his eyes at Kitty, enjoying the fear he instilled in everyone. "Now, do you have anything else to say, or are you ready to learn?"

Everyone nodded slowly. 

"Good," Logan nodded back. "Partner up. Show me what you got."

* * *

John limped out of the Phys. Ed. room, followed by Jubilee, Kitty, Bobby, and Marie who all had bruises, scratches, or were sore in some area or the other. 

"I can't believe it," John complained. "He attacked me!"

"He attacked everyone," Jubilee reminded him, "and you were just a prime target because you called him a pimp in Biology yesterday."

"How was I supposed to know he has Superman equivalent senses?" John demanded, leaning against a column and sinking to the ground, wincing when his leg thumped against the ground. He glared at Marie. She held her hands up.

"I had no idea what that was all about," she promised. "I didn't even know why you called him a pimp." Now she glared at him. "If that's your sly way of calling me a whore, I hope you sleep with your eyes open."

Kitty snickered, "Oh, Rogue's a hellcat!"

Rogue blushed and took a step back, absentmindedly tugging at the hem of her elbow length gloves. She shrugged and looked away. "Sorry."

"Whatever," John grumbled. "Hey, Drake, help me back to my room."

"See you later, guys," Bobby sighed as he hoisted John up and threw his arm around his shoulder, helping him hobble his way up the stairs. Figures that the elevator would only go to two floors."

Kitty, Jubilee, and Rogue headed to the kitchen for a snack. 

"I can't believe today's class," Jubilee shook her head, chugging down half her water bottle in one swallow. Exercise makes her hungry, alright? Don't judge. "Was he serious?"

"I think he was," Kitty frowned. "I mean, Mystique got into the school once without actually trying. Imagine what she could have done to either of us. And Magneto, we all know he's a bad dude," Jubilee and Kitty glance over at Rogue, who sticks her tongue out in good humor, "and what about Sabertooth? I mean, none of us have actually seen him yet, but I heard Mr. Summers and Dr. Grey talking about how he was like Wolverine, only Wolverine was stronger, more focused."

"So we have another wild man on the loose?" Jubilee snorted, unimpressed. "Wonderful."

"Shut up," Marie snapped on instinct, needing to defend Logan. "He can't help what he is, just like the rest of us can't. He's not an animal."

"But you know about him and Mr. Summ--"

"So just because Logan is a stronger mutant than the one's you're used to, you have to classify him as some....some brainless animal?" She pushes away from the table roughly and tosses her soda in the trash. She stalks from the room. 

Jubilee and Kitty stare after her, wide eyed. 

"What was that?" Kitty breathed. "I didn't think she'd react like that."

Jubilee sipped on her water, biting her bottom lip. "You still think nothing is going on between her and Wolverine?"

"I _always_ thought something was going on!" Kitty declared. "We just don't have any hard evidence."

"What about right now, when Rogue almost tore our head's off?"

"That could be classified as an act of friendship, or because she felt the need to defend him after he saved her life, like, twice. I mean, if someone saved my life, I'd feel like I owed the son of a bitch something."

Jubilee shook her head and leaned back in her chair.

"I think something's there," she said. "We just don't know what it is yet. And they don't either."

* * *

"I owe you something," says a deep, husky voice from behind her, and Storm almost burns down the entire mansion with a strong burst of lightening as she had a flashback to the Statue of Liberty, with Sabertooth's lips at her ear as he said, _"You owe me a scream."_ Logan must have noticed, but she could sense him move farther back and say, "Shit, Storm, sorry. I forgot."

She doesn't get angry, she knows how he feels about forgetting things, so she lets it go. Besides, it's not like he intended to scare her half to death.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, and then realizes that it could go to either of his statements. Luckily, he doesn't bring up Sabertooth. 

"Thank you," Logan choked out, and Storm grinned in spite of her self. 

"For what?" she teased.

"For taking care of Marie," he snapped.

"Marie?"

"That's Rogue's real name. Don't call her that. She has to trust you all the way first."

"And she trusts you?"  
They stare at each other for a long time, and Logan smirks, nodding. "Yeah, she does trust me. A lot. And I'm saying thank you for watching out of her while I wasn't here. There's not a lot of people I can count on. Not that I can remember, anyways. I find you more than tolerable."

"Maybe we could be friends," Storm suggests, and she could still see how foreign the term sounded to him, even though he was in a relationship---although a relationship that has yet to be determined--with Rogue. "If you'd like."

"Yeah," Logan said slowly, lips twitching. "Friends. Well, darling, I'm Logan, most badass mutant there is." He held out his hand and she shook it.

"Ororo, or Storm," she replies, flexing her hand to make sure it still worked. He chuckled. "Nice to meet you."

It was the start of something truly beautiful. 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I welcome comments and constructive criticism.


	7. Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan and Marie negotiate, Kitty and Jubilee are very suspicious, and there is some flirting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.

Logan sat in the kitchen at the table, smoking a cigar. It was late, midnight, and the house was quiet everywhere. He had another nightmare and decided that it wasn't worth another possible _accidentally-stab-someone-I-care-about_ incident, and that it would be better for him to stay awake and keep watch. He still hadn't dropped the Magneto incident at the Liberty. He doubted he ever would. It was still stuck in his head, along with his conversation with Marie on the train. She'd been so trusting, so easily accepting of the monster inside of him and he wanted her badly, so bad, because no one else had wanted him like that in a very long time. Or maybe he just hadn't let anybody get that close. 

His memories weren't fully there, but from his blurry dreams and vague memories in the back of his mind, he could make an educated guess that his life wasn't exactly a Martha Stewart one before.

He stared wistfully out the window, eyes sweeping the lush grounds. All he saw were trees, grass, and an empty basketball court. He sighed, wondering if these nights would ever end. Here he was again, as he usually was, up all night, never sleeping, afraid to sleep because he didn't know what could be waiting behind the darkness of his eyelids for him. He didn't want to see anymore. It was easier to just pretend everything was okay. 

"You're up late," a voice says from the doorway. Logan, having already sensed her, didn't even flinch. He lifted one shoulder and let it drop in a shrug.

"You can say that," he murmured around the cigar, puffing out another cloud of smoke. 

Jean frowned and waved the cloud away as she sat down next to him, awfully close. Logan noticed it but said nothing.

"Another nightmare?" Jean asked.

Logan shrugs again. "I'll live. I've been doing it for fifteen years."

"You're exhausted, though," Jean pointed out, putting a dainty hand on his shoulder. Logan stiffens under her touch. She doesn't notice. "Listen, I've been thinking......" Her fingers expand and trail down Logan's bicep. A long time ago, maybe he would have wanted that, wanted her. A long time ago was just a few months. Flirting with Jean was for the sole purpose of pissing Scott off, to show that he could be Mr. Steal Yo Girl if he wanted to. Gritting his teeth, Logan shoved her hand away. Jean recoiled in surprise. She had gotten so used to Logan's flirting that she'd found herself flirting back and feeling something for him. It was something every girl craved when they were in a steady, mostly boring relationship--a bad boy to spice things up.

"You think I flirted with you because I wanted to get in your pants?" Logan snorts. "Please," he grumbles, turning back to the window and puffing on his cigar again. 

"W-what?" Jean whispered, and she sounded so heartbroken that Logan almost felt sorry for her. "But....but you--"

"Getting a rise out of One Eye means I have to take some drastic measures, Red," Logan cuts her off. "If you don't mind, I was trying to have a relaxing evening."

Jean clenches her jaw. Something stirs in the back of her mind, something dark and dangerous. She quickly rises to her feet and leaves the kitchen, humiliated. Why she came downstairs, she didn't know. She had hoped, somewhere inside her, that Logan's flirting had been legit. He didn't flirt with any other girls around the school, so she thought they were. It was something that constantly nagged her though, how easily she could cheat on Scott if someone like Logan entered the building. She doubted Logan even knew what he did to the girls around here. There was a reason behind the increasing water bill and the disappearance of all the C batteries. How Logan hadn't noticed the way he made every girl within a five mile radius swoon, she'd never know or understand.

She runs into Marie on the way back to her room and sneers at her. Marie's eyes widen in shock and she takes a step back, ready to whip off her gloves if Jean attacked. Jean and Marie had tension between them ever since Logan decided to stay at the mansion. Marie didn't want to accuse the older woman of being jealous, because, if she was being honest with herself, Marie was jealous of Jean too because Jean, if anything, had a chance with Logan. 

"What the hell is your problem?" Marie demanded. 

Jean glared. "You are. Stay out of my way." Jean is about to turn the corner to the teacher's dorm room when she calls over her shoulder," And Rogue? You're just a child. Your crush is just a crush. I want you to know that."

* * *

 Marie met Logan in the kitchen, curled in on herself. Logan can tell she's coming seconds before she walks through the doorway, and when he sees her, he's ready to commit a brutal murder, the victim being whoever made his Marie feel like shit.

"What's wrong?" Logan asks, reaching out a hand, locking it around her wrist and pulling her closer. 

Marie shakes her head and pulls away, instead sitting on the opposite side of the table. Logan flinches at the rejection. When she finally looks up at him, he quickly fixes his face, stabbing the cigar stub on his hand to put it out. He watches the burned flesh heal. 

"What am I to you?" Marie asks, and there's things Logan wants to say but he knows he can't.

 _"You're my everything,"_ he wanted to whisper in her ear while his arms were locked around her, poison skin be damned. _"You make me feel something, things I haven't felt in a long time. I don't have anywhere else to go, no one else I want to be close to. I have to constantly convince myself that you're just a kid so I don't just claim you as mine right here and right now. Marie, my Marie, always my Marie...."_

Logan clears his throat, clearly uncomfortable.  
"You're my friend, kid," and the words cut them both deep because Marie doesn't want to be a kid in his eyes anymore and Logan doesn't just want to be her friend because it's never enough, never, ever enough. "I...Marie," he sighs. 

"No," Marie shakes her head. "Jean said--"

Logan's crossed the table and pulled Marie out of her seat, ignoring the tingling of her skin on his, the way he felt himself grown weaker as he said, quietly, dangerously, "You don't listen to anything that bitch says, you understand, Marie? She doesn't know what she's talking about, alright?"

"So do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Feel something for me. Am I more then just a kid to you?" As she says this, Marie moves her hands down his muscled chest and rest them just above his crotch.

"Marie," Logan growls. She's gotten bold. She stares up at him defiantly. She squeezes him through his jeans and fuck, today wasn't a good day to go commando. Logan grabs her hands and forces them back to her sides. He steps back. "Talk to me when you're eighteen."

"Is that what this is all about? My age?" Marie doesn't look too pleased. 

Logan tries to explain himself, "Look, kid, you're sixteen. I'm god knows how old. Hell, Marie, I'm older than the Professor! And I already have Scott and Jean on my ass, along with your little buddies who think that it's there job to get us together---"

"When did Kitty and Jubilee decide to--"

"A few days ago. Marie," Logan rubs a hand over his tired face. He sinks into a chair, putting his hands on Marie's thick, curvy waist. He has a quick, dirty little fantasy of him grabbing on her hips as he thrusts into her. He quickly pushes it away. "I...." he clears his throat. "Marie...." He really doesn't want to say it. Not because he doesn't feel anything for her, but because he has vague memories in the back of his mind of watching the people he loved die in front of him just because of who he was and because his past was and always will be inescapable, no matter how hard, fast, and far he runs. And Marie, one way or another, would die anyway, being a normal mutant who wasn't an immortal like he was. And she can do better. Why she'd want anything to do with a fucked up, amnesic, potty mouthed, animal of a Canadian that he was is _way_ beyond him. 

And he _couldn't_ say it.   
Logan wasn't a man of many words, and feelings were something he rarely expressed. The slightest bit of emotion that he showed around the mansion of mostly blistering fury, and that was mostly always directed at Scott and his incredible ability to rile the Wolverine up in less than ten seconds. Telling Marie, that, yeah, he felt something for her, made his brain short circuit a little. His mouth opened and closed, Marie staring at him expectantly. 

Finally, Logan says, with a small smile, "Why the hell do you think I'm still here?"

And that was that.

"Ground rules," Logan says before Marie can jump his bones. He wishes he was slightly younger or that she was slightly older. Marie pouts. "You have to be eighteen kid. And then there's no holding back," his eyes roamed over his body as he said that, slowly, taking in her breasts, her thighs, her hips, and Marie flushed, fidgeting a little where she stood.

"Seventeen," Marie says.

Logan stares at her eyes narrowed.

"Seventeen and a half," Logan negotiates, and Marie nods excitedly, because at least that's only a year and a half, and not an entire two years that she had to wait for the two of them to be accepted. "And, kid?" Marie nods. Logan smirks. "I don't know if we'll make it that far."

* * *

That morning, Marie tried to act like nothing was wrong with her. It wasn't anything bad. She was just uncontrollably happy. Logan hadn't said word for word, "I love you, Marie," but he said it in his own way, telling her that she was the only reason he hadn't rolled the hell out of this place the first chance he got. And he had many chances. After Magneto, Logan could have gone off the grid again and never come back, not even to check in or even send a postcard. At least Logan came back for her, and she only had to wait a year and a half before she could finally have him in every way she imagined.

Keeping it to herself was hard, but she managed. However, she hadn't been able to stop herself from skipping to the cafeteria/dining hall. Prancing around the corner, she smacked into Logan, getting a face full of his hard abs and pecs. She blushed furiously, fumbling to pick up her scattered books. She had only grabbed two when Logan plucked them out of her hand, along with the rest off the ground, and nudged her inside. She stammered out, "G-g-good morning."

Logan grins.  
"How did you sleep?"

"Like a baby," Marie says.

Logan nods thoughtfully.

"And you?" Marie asks.

Logan looks at her from the corner of his eye and smirks.  
"My conscience thinks you'd look great wearing red lace, darlin'."

As they're walking past the teacher's table, Logan discreetly pinches Marie's ass. Marie squeals so hard and loud that she gives herself a migraine and her throat starts to hurt. Scott and a few other kids look at them suspiciously. Kitty and Jubilee make note of Logan carrying Marie's books, watching him set them down on the table and slid into his seat. Marie grabs two plates, one for both of them, and piles food on Logan's plates, knowing he'd want more than his fair share of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. Especially bacon. And a few sausages wouldn't hurt either. 

Scott gestured wildly, hissing, "See? _See?_ Platonic my _ass_!"

"Scott," Professor warned.

Scott continued, "You can't tell me that that doesn't look even the slightest bit romantic to you."

"Why do you care so much?" Ororo sighed, setting down her fork. "What's it to you?"

"Rogue is just a kid," Scott insists. "And Jean read her mind, and from what she could see, her crush on Logan was a big one. Logan's in a school full of kids, only here because it's free plumbing, bedding, food, and cable around here. He can't bring home any of his prositutes and oh, look, there's Rogue! He's using her! He knows of her crush on him and you know how easily Rogue's will would bend for him. She's putty in his hands!"

"Are you implying that Rogue is a whore?" Ororo demanded, casting a weary glance over at Logan and Marie's table, afraid they'd hear. Logan's eyes flicked to hers for a half a second, but she could see the underlying anger behind them, ready to be unleashed on an unsuspecting and probably uncaring Scott. "She can make her own choices, Scott. Besides, he did save her more than once. He's something familiar to her."

"And when he leaves?" Scott asks. "What will happen to her then?"

"It'll pass," Jean said, staring down at her plate. "It has to."

"What?"

Jean shrugs with just one shoulder, shoving a piece pancake in her mouth and chewing it carefully before she said, "I mean, Logan's not known for staying in one place for very long. He's going to get tired of here eventually, and when he does, he'll leave. He won't even wait to say good bye to Rogue. One night, he'll just disappear and not even send a postcard with a nice _kiss my ass_ written on it. He's going to be leaving soon. As soon as the Professor finds something else about Logan's past, Logan'll be out of here faster than you can say adios."

Ororo wants to point out that, yeah, Logan will eventually leave, but like fuck will he be leaving Marie here. If he goes, she goes, the law be damned. He'd rip anyone who got in his way apart. And besides, it was Marie's choice. And it was obvious that she'd choose Logan in a heartbeat, no questions asked. If Logan said, "Let's go," Rogue would have packed her bag and been out the door at Logan's side in less than five minutes, and that was the hard truth. Ororo herself wasn't quite sure what the two felt for each other. It could be platonic or romantic or both or something new, something they made for themselves. She personally didn't care, because she knew how it felt to be judged right away, to have people make one second assumptions about you without ever actually getting to know you. It happened to her, when people assumed she was a killer because she killed the man who tried to rape her. None of them knew a damn thing about Marie and Logan. Not a damn thing.

Bobby, Kitty, John, Jubilee, and Piotr sat at another table. Piotr was half asleep and shoveling food into his mouth at the same time, not able to speak. It's not like it would have mattered anyways, since he didn't really talk much.

"See that?" Kitty mumbles. "Fixing his food for him. They're totally screwing." Jubilee grunts around a mouthful of eggs.

Jealously coiled inside of Bobby, making him hate the Wolverine even more for easily being with Rogue. She could say anything she wanted, she and Logan obviously had something going on with them, and he wanted to know what it was. Had Rogue only went out with him because she felt bad for him, or did she actually want to go? He didn't want to find out he'd been used as a tool to make Logan jealous.

"Again," Bobby snaps from beside her. "Can we not talk about sex while I'm eating breakfast?" John Piotr nods in agreement.

Bobby looks on at Marie---still Rogue to everyone else---and Logan, sitting, eating and laughing together, Marie's feet resting comfortably in Logan's lap. One of his hands reaches out towards her bare skin and literally everyone in the room tenses. Logan twisted a few strands of hair around his finger before letting it fall, saying something that made Marie laugh. Bobby heard his name and listened harder.

"Never did tell me how that date with the ice prick went," Logan grumbles. 

Marie giggles. "It was fine. A bit awkward, I guess. Scott followed us, since we're not allowed to be alone when not on school grounds."

Logan snorts. "I bet Slim was a great chaperon, the prude." Logan crunches on his bacon. "And I still don't get that," he says. "He's fucking Jean, but he's still so private. He's even worse than a virgin."

"I'm a virgin," Marie says angrily.

Logan's eyes darken, pupils dilating and Marie can already feel her arousal sweep through her body. Logan inhales deeply, closing his eyes. When he opens them, he looks ever bit like the animal he advertised to everyone. Logan grins, all teeth and licks his lips slowly, taunting her, as he says, "Not for long, baby. Not for long."

It was gonna be a long year and a half.

* * *

When Logan teaches class that day, he doesn't even attempt to stop his leering at Marie when the rest of the class is looking. He wants everyone to see the way his eyes focus on her rear, following the sway of her hips as she walked and talked with Kitty and Jubilee, in a quiet argument with them. When he finally looks elsewhere, he catches Bobby's eyes. Logan winks. Bobby turns red and stalks away.

Classes with Logan were always tiring and rough, and no one ever left there without a bruise or two from Logan. No one but Marie. No one noticed, but today they would. They'd notice the way he'd teach her more than them, how attuned they were into each other without actually realizing it.

"Line up," Logan barks, and the little runts move to their assigned spots so fast there's actually a few skid marks on the recently polished floor. Well, no one was going to willingly cross the Wolverine, especially not when he's in one of his moods. Which was, you know, all the time. His eyes swept over his class of silent teenagers, nodding to himself when he saw that they were all dressed properly. Kids visibly relaxed their muscles and let out sighs of relief. Logan arched an eyebrow at John, who stared at Logan with a burning hatred. Logan knew he shouldn't get the kid going, but he was getting pretty tired of John's cruel whispers and angry looks. Logan's been getting enough of that from Scott and Jean lately, thank you very much. "Something you wanna say to me, runt?"

A few of the kids in the class snickered. John turned beet red but still said, "You pick on me."

Logan shrugs, unaffected.  
"I don't like you."

"You don't like Kitty either!" John huffs. "Look, dude, I just don't see the point in all of this. It's not fair that you fight me like you wanna kill me, but then go easy on the girls--"

Logan has both his eyebrows raised now.  
"The point? Listen, Pyro, John, whatever the fuck you wanna be called. I do what's best. If you can't handle fighting me, then you can't be an X-Men. You know why? Because no one's gonna be holding your fucking hand when you're fighting Sabertooth. You can't do anything but run from him, and that doesn't even matter because the bastard likes to run on all fours and he'd catch you and be sinking his teeth into your back before you could even take in a breath to scream." Logan's yelling now. "You think being a weak little bitch is gonna help you in the real world? Someone pulls a gun on you. What are you gonna do? You aren't me, kid. You can't take a few bullets to the head and still be okay. You'd die. And then it would be my problem. And I don't go easy on the girls. I actually hit them harder because I know they can take it, something you have yet to prove to me." John's thoroughly humiliated now, and he's begging God to open the ground and swallow him down right now. "Anything else you want to say, John? Or shall I give you an even more detailed description on how much you disappoint me?"

John quietly shakes his head.

Logan nods.

"Good. Everyone pair up with someone you haven't fought yet. Hand to hand combat for warm-up. Go."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave comments and tell me what you think!


	8. Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean is rejected, Logan does things for alcohol, and Marie gets a makeover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.

Really, Logan deserved it. 

Marie had her reasons to get a little revenge because Logan had decided that he was going to make his self defense class go swimming in the large outdoor swimming pool, and Logan actually had the _nerve_ to be in nothing but shorts that hung low on his hips, chest completely bare. His shorts hadn't even been swimming trunks, they had just been regular, plain black shorts that clung to every inch of his skin. During class, the girls had all swooned and risked getting failing grades for that assignment because they were too busy posing for Logan and flirting. And after class, their was a suspiciously large disappearance of all the C batteries. It could have been something else....but not likely. 

"Dude," Kitty breaths from the balcony of her bedroom. "The Wolverine is hella sexy."

Logan's climbing out of the water, perfect and graceful and wet and firm and muscled and Jesus. H. Christ. how no one had died from going into cardiac arrest yet was a mystery to Kitty. Jubilee squeezed her way outside to join Kitty and swooned as Logan raised his arms above his head. The muscles in his stomach, back, shoulders, and near his hips rippled in the most delicious way. Marie wouldn't even try to lie to herself; Logan was incredibly attractive. Everyone knew. Sighing heavily, she stood and quietly left Jubilee and Kitty to their creepy staring. If she'd stayed any longer, she would have been on the balcony with them, salivating and having very dirty thoughts about her and Logan's deal. Ugh. She still had a long time to go. Time passed way too slowly for her. She wanted Logan now, for herself. She knew that, logically, she couldn't actually have him, but she could stake her claim. 

Biting her lip, Marie turned right back around and went into her room. 

"Um, guys?" she said quietly. 

Kitty and Jubilee hesitantly turned away from Logan's wet form. He was going inside anyways. They stared at their roommate curiously. 

"Yeah?" Kitty answered.

"Could you...." Marie cleared her throat. "Could you make me look....hot?"

Jubilee and Kitty squealed, grabbing their friend's gloved hands and pushing her down in a chair. 

Marie swallowed loudly.

She just might regret this.

* * *

Logan was still shirtless, but dry, when he entered the main part of the mansion. He passed many teenage girls who stared at him hungrily. He wanted to laugh at them. If only they knew about him and Marie. If only. Logan quickly thought about something else. The last thing he needed was for his thoughts to get too loud and have one of the resident telepaths go looking through his brain. He didn't want to give Summers another reason to kick him out of the school. Logan knew he wasn't exactly a saint, because if his daily nightmares said anything, it was that he was a killer and his claws had spilled more blood than he had in his entire body. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. It was in the past, yeah, but his past had a nasty habit of coming back to bite him in the ass, so he wouldn't get comfortable just yet. 

"Do you enjoy this?" Ororo asked, smiling. "Walking around shirtless and sending half the student body in search of their vibrators."

Logan smirked, pushing 'Ro lightly. Well, as lightly as he could. She still stumbled and glared at him.  
"I can't help that I'm gorgeous."

Ororo snorted, slapping Logan on the back of the head. "You're a mess, Logan," she told him before she flashed him a smile and went down a different hallway. Logan watched her go, wondering how this was suddenly his life. Friends, a promise to a teenage girl, a job, a permanent place to stay...it all seemed too good to be true, and that was something that Logan experienced a lot. Sometimes, he wasn't which life is easier, being in constant emotional isolation and being an asshole, or getting comfortable with people who are eventually going to grow old and die. Logan really hated being a mutant sometimes, and with good reasons. It didn't matter if Marie and the mansion was his home and life, because eventually, everyone would die, everyone would be gone, and what would he have? Professor wasn't living forever, despite popular belief, being an X-Men came with life endangering consequences, and the students were all going to leave. This life wasn't a forever kind of thing, and Logan wasn't sure if he really wanted to put himself through it.

Crying himself to sleep at night with his ruined hands wrapped tightly around a vodka bottle was something he did before, and he knew he'd go right back to his old self once his small ounce of happiness ran out.

Logan shook his head and headed to the kitchen, figuring that he'd eat until his stomach exploded so he wouldn't have to think about the past, present, and future. They were all too painful, even though he didn't even remember his past completely. Opening the fridge, he groaned. He looked inside the cabinets and groaned again. Everything here was kid friendly, and it was getting really annoying. Whole grain cereal, low fat milk, serving sizes listed on every surface, juice boxes. He felt like he was in a daycare. 

"Not everyone survives on expired granola bars and tasteless whiskey, Logan," a voice from the doorway says. Logan sees Jean there, wearing a tight red dress with matching heels.

Logan glared. "Don't go poking around in my head, Red. My thoughts are my own."

Jean's smile falters for just a second before coming back full force. She moves forward, biting her lip seductively. Logan wants to laugh at her and himself. Before, he'd be jumping at the chance to piss Scott off and prove that, yeah, he could totally bang his girlfriend without actually trying. But now.....

"Not interested," he says, smiling. "Sorry, but I found something a lot better."

"W-what?" Jean scoffs. "Just days ago you were all over me and now--"

"You're a mind reader," Logan says slowly. "And you're telling me that you can't tell when you're being used? I just flirted with you to get to Scott. Pissing him off is, like, my second job around here."

Jean's face turns a dangerous shade of purple and everything in the kitchen rises off the ground and slams back down before going flying around the room. Logan stares at her indifferently. He should probably be afraid of her, since she's losing control of her mutation right in front of him, but he's basically immortal, so getting a fork to the eye and make a butcher knife to the dick might hurt, but it won't kill him. He's still trying to decide if that was a good or bad thing as he brushes past Jean to leave the room.

He figures it's a little bit of both.

* * *

_Now is not the time to get an erection_ , Logan chanted in his head over and over again as Marie entered the room with Kitty and Jubilee. Logan was sitting in the living room, wine bottle in hand (it's the only alcohol he could find in this stupid place, alright? And he had to break into the Professor's bedroom to get it, so he's going to enjoy it, dammit), rolling his eyes at the stupid show with a talking sponge the kids were watching when his girl walked in. 

She was showing little to no skin, and yet....he felt like she might as well have been naked. She wore tight black leather pants that surprisingly didn't squeak as she made her way over to him. Her white tank top was low cut, showing off her impressive cleavage, and her arms were covered with Logan's leather jacket. His jacket. The tags hung between her breasts. His eyes trailed lower, eyeing her ass before letting his gaze fall upon the black high heels on her feet. Jesus, her legs went on forever. Logan choked on his wine a little.

"Hey, sugah'," Marie smiled innocently at him. She was well aware that everyone in the living room was staring, Kitty and Jubilee sitting smugly in the corner. Marie plucked the wine bottle out of Logan's hand and sat on his lap, wiggling her hips a little to get comfortable. Logan almost groaned. His jeans felt really tight suddenly, and he knew Marie felt it, because she lifted up slightly and moved so that his dick pressed right against her core. Logan let out a quiet whimper. Marie sipped the wine, frowning. "I thought the mansion didn't have alcohol."

Images of a drunk Marie sprawled across his bed, wearing nothing but those heels, flashed across Logan's mind. 

Yeah...it was going to be a very long year.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave comments and tell me what you think!


	9. Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Logan can't take it anymore, and Marie feels like her life is over.
> 
> Warning: THIS CHAPTER MAY OR MAY NOT CONTAIN SMUT. DO NOT WORRY, I SUCK AT SMUT SO IT WON'T BE VERY DESCRIPTIVE, BUT IT WILL OR WILL NOT STILL BE HERE. FAIR WARNING!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.

In Logan's defense, it was Marie's fault.

No one with a body like hers should wear anything that tight and fitting in the presence of him. His self control was seriously tested that night, and he didn't like it. He guessed he deserved it, since he knew that, yeah, he did look really fucking hot earlier at the pool, with water dripping off his body and everything. But at least that had been in a quiet, secluded, place with not a lot of students. And there were other girls at the pool who were swooning over him, giving Marie the right away to stare freely and not be deemed weird.

But she had crossed the line!

He didn't even want to know where she'd gotten the outfit, but he kind of did because he wanted her to have more like it. He suspected Jubilee and Kitty, since those two are surprisingly smarter than they act. But he'd never seen either of the two meddling kids with anything that tight. And they were a lot smaller than Marie, less curvy, so their clothes wouldn't fit on her. 

And then she sat on his laps and starting sipping his wine and wiggled her hips in a way that was downright sexual and made him hard and she had felt him and the year wasn't going by as fast as it should be, dammit! He's the Wolverine, and he is not to be broken by a sixteen year old girl.

Jesus Christ, that makes it sound even worse!

His mind was assaulted with his guilty conscience that oh so kindly reminded him that he was making plans to fuck a sixteen year old, that he was getting hard over seeing her in tight leather, that he wanted her in the worst way and he didn't care who saw him take her right then and there. A part of him wanted to back out, try to be friends with the kid-- _ugh, **kid** ,_ he moaned guiltily--but he couldn't. He just didn't have the will power. If he didn't have her, someone else would, and he saw her first to therefore, she was his. 

Logan found himself waiting until the entire mansion was quiet, kids and teachers in their rooms or out for a night on the town, before quietly walking down the hallway leading to Marie's room. He shouldn't do this, he should be stronger than this, but he just could not take it anymore. Not when she was so close. He wondered what she was wearing, if she had on that nightgown that left nothing to the imagination. He'd prefer it if she wore nothing....

 _Easy, bub,_ Logan growled to his inner animal. _We have to **get** to her room first, and then wonder about everything else later. We aren't gonna make it very far if you keep growling like a damned dog._

The Wolverine quieted and settled. Logan rolled his shoulders to ease the tension.

* * *

 This was so wrong.

It was even worse because of the age difference.  
It was even _more_ worse that they mutually wanted to fuck each other's brains out until there was nothing left. 

And you know what made it outright horrible?

It wasn't even about sex.  
No, this was about a man, age unknown but who had the appearance of a middle aged man, and a teenage girl no younger than sixteen fell in love with each other in the time span of a few seconds and came to realize it in the time span of just a few days. It was outright horrible because if it was just sex, Logan could just fuck and go and just forget it ever happened, since forgetting seemed to be a talent of his. No, he wanted her. Like, as in a long term want. It was a new feeling for him, maybe for her too, and it was outright horrible because somewhere, deep inside them, that just knew that the universe would do everything in it's power to tear them apart. 

* * *

Logan had managed to quietly open the door and wake a sleeping Marie without waking up her roommates who would get them caught in a heartbeat. He'd brought her to his room, saying something like, "I had a nightmare, wanted to have you close," and she'd eaten it up, wanting to be there for him in anyway she could.

But as soon as he closed his bedroom door and locked it, he was all over her, gripping her thighs and yanking her up off the floor. Marie gasped, hands tangling in Logan's hair as he kissed her, taking advantage of her gasp to stick his tongue in her mouth, exploring every delicious inch, tangling his tongue with her own. Logan felt the life being sucked out of him, her skin turned up to the max as she moaned and writhed against him, rolling her hips against his in a silent demand for _more_. Marie's fingers traced his face, and only then did she pull away after feeling the bulging veins. She gasped, ripping herself away from him, but Logan wouldn't let go. 

He pushed her down on the bed, feeling like he was going to pass out, but he _needed_ her. He had to have her in some way, any way, or else he would spontaneously combust. 

"Logan," Marie cried out when he mouthed at her nightgown, at her nipples. She'd picked the right night to sleep bra-less. "Logan, wait, my, _oh_ , my skin!"

"Fuck it," Logan rasped, eyes rolling to the back of his head, still touching every inch of her exposed skin, still filled with that dying feeling. 

"No," Marie insisted, overpowering Logan and pinning him to the bed with her hands covered by the sheets. Slowly, Logan came back to himself, skin no longer sticking to the bone. Logan panted, chest heaving, feeling a little dazed. He wondered how he'd lost control so completely. He.... Logan felt bile rise in his throat. He could have raped her.

Logan threw Marie off him and scrambled off the bed, pressing himself to the wall by the window. He couldn't look her in the eye anymore, much less touch her. Not after what almost happened. 

"Logan?" Marie asked, stepping forward. Logan growled. 

"Get back!"

Marie recoiled as if she was slapped but dutifully stepped back so that the bed was between them, more than enough room. They watched each other for a while, each wondering what was going on in the other's head. Logan was seriously regretting making that deal with her. He almost took advantage of her in the worst way possible. He couldn't....he couldn't do this. Marie wondered about Logan's sudden change in heart, insecurities rising as she questioned if she no longer appealed to him.

Logan cleared his throat.  
"I think....I think you should go back to your room."

"Not until you tell me what's wrong with you," Marie said stubbornly. "Why did you push me away like that?"

"Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Logan," Marie sighed. 

"Look," Logan insisted. "Please. Just....go back to your room. We can talk tomorrow."

* * *

The following morning, Logan downed an entire twenty four case of beer in one sitting, ignoring the concerned looks he was getting. He knew he looked like hell. After Marie left last night, he hadn't gone back to sleep. Instead, he'd stayed up trying to find a way to break it to Marie slowly, nicely, to not destroy her. But he had to do this. He had almost violated her last night, selfish and unthinking and just plain disgusting. And there was no doubt that had her skin not almost sucked him dry, she would have let him. And that's what worried him, the extreme amounts of trust she had in him. She trusted him with her life, something he didn't deserve in the slightest. Whatever good he had done in the past, whether he remembered it or not, could no longer outweigh the bad of the situation that could have been disastrous last night.

Waiting for Marie to come downstairs and meet him in the garden was hell, mostly because it left him to his thoughts. He couldn't stop thinking about how wrong this is. He had buried his resentments of the deal while ago but now they were resurfacing ten fold. The age difference was the one that hit him the most, along with him being too damaged and underserving of Marie's love. What she saw in an old man like him, he'd never know, never understand.

"Logan?" Marie called.

The feral mutant turned at the sound of her voice. She wore her usual outfit of dark jeans, and scarf, but her shirt and jacket belonged to Logan, probably something she stole from his duffel bag. She smelled like him, and it made everything even harder.

"We need to talk." Logan stated, clearing his throat. "I've been thinking, Marie, this," he gestures between the two of them, "just isn't going to work."

Marie's face made Logan like he was Lucifer, because tears were starting to well in her eyes and she looked seconds away from having a mental breakdown. "You promised," she whispered. "Logan, you can't just back out. Last night, it was nothing!"

"I almost took advantage of you," Logan snapped. "That's not nothing. And the worst past? You would have let me."

Marie started to cry, locking her gloved hands in Logan's.  
"You're not going to back out of this. You can't. I thought we," she searched Logan's face and was heartbroken to find it empty of all emotion," I thought we had something."

"We wouldn't have worked anyways," Logan insisted. "It's for the best."

"For who?" Marie yelled. Logan jumped. "For you or for me? Is this your way of avoiding settling down? So you don't have to admit that you feel something for me that isn't as platonic as you want it to be?"

"Maybe I just don't want you anymore," Logan snaps and instantly regrets his words. Anything other than that. The naked hurt, betrayal, and utter destruction tore Logan up inside. "Marie, I didn't mean it that way."

"Then how did you mean it?" Marie demanded through her sobs. "You'd rather have Jean? Huh, Logan? Is that it?"

"Marie!" Logan reached for her arm but she ripped away from him. He started to say something else but the words were torn from his lungs as he watched in horror as Marie ripped off his leather jacket and dog tags, tossed them on the ground, and walked away. He bent down to pick up the discarded items. Hidden under the cover of tall trees and flower bushes, Logan let a tear slid down his cheek.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave your comments telling me what you think!


	10. Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marie leaves the mansion for a little downtime and runs into the very reason students aren't allowed off campus alone, and when Logan goes looking for her, he runs into someone who can tell him about his past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.
> 
> Go to the bottom of this chapter to see an Author's Note please!

Telling Marie that he didn't want her anymore was the worst thing he can remember doing in his life. He didn't mean it, of course, but he had habit of not being able to control what came out of his mouth when his emotions were running high. Maybe that was why people wanted to kill him, why he had so many enemies. Maybe that's why he didn't have any family or friends. 

These thoughts made Logan feel more suicidal than usual so he quickly pushed them away as he walked quickly towards his room to pack a few things. He had to travel light. No, he wasn't that much of an asshole where he would leave the mansion when he just told Marie something completely and utterly horrible. No, it would be pointless anyways, since he knew that Marie had already left the mansion with a back packed, if the whispered rumors of the students were anything to go by. And the severely disappointed look Charles gave him from his desk in his office when Logan had walked by was the confirmation that he had royally screwed up and it would take years to make up for this one mistake.

What hurt the most, Logan mused after shrugging on his trademark plaid shirts and boots before stomping down the back staircase towards the garage, was how she had taken his things off her body. She all but ripped the leather jacket and dog tags off and, to add insult to injury, she had thrown them on the ground. He really did feel something for her though, because if anyone else had done that to him after everything they'd been through, Logan most likely would've committed a very brutal murder without even attempting to hide the body.

Logan looked longingly at Scott's bike, but knew that it would be safer if he took a car. So he stole a car, a sleek, black Porsche that made Logan drool because god damn, this was a nice car! Sighing heavily, Logan mentally prepared himself for the hunt for Marie before tearing out of the garage and speeding down the curved driveway.

* * *

Marie was entirely too easy to find, and it told Logan that, if they'd never be anything more than friends after his fuck up, they could be at least be friends. She was leaning against the wall, waiting for a train, ticket clutched in hand as she nibbled on her bottom lip. Logan watched her for a moment. Maybe the only reason he knew where she was going to be is simply because his animal side has an unhealthy obsession with, or maybe because he was just so attuned to the sixteen year old girl who'd changed his life in just a few days. Either way, she would have stood out because of the white strip in her hair that was poorly hidden under her hood.

Slowly walking up to her, Logan smiled tightly. "Hey, kid."

Marie started to walk away. Logan grabbed her wrist and forced her to turn back around.

"Marie," Logan whispered. "Please. I didn't mean any of it, you know that!"

"Do I?" Marie scoffed. "Half the time I didn't know if you really felt something towards me or if you were just using me to pass the time until Jean finally loved you."

"Forget Jean," Logan snarls. "I don't want her. I never did. I only want you."

"Do you really?"

" _Yes_ ," Logan stressed. "Look, kid, Marie, I'm not good with words, or emotions, or...," Logan gestured wildly between them, eyes wide, " _this_! In case you've forgotten, I only have memory of the past fifteen of my life, and even with those measly fifteen years, I never had a person I genuinely cared about or...wanted in this way. I don't know how to do this. I'm not sure how to do this."

"You kissed me," Marie whispered, looking up at him through her long, thick eyelashes. "You kissed me, and you touched me, and you made me _want you_ and then you tried to kick me out of my life."

Logan felt his face heat up and he looked at the ground as he muttered, "I found out that since I have shitty emotional and social skills, I tend to be an asshole to people who care about me or who I care about. Besides....one of my memories, the ones I see in my dreams, makes me not want to trust anyone."

"You're right not to trust anyone right away," Marie agrees. "But you have to trust me when I say that I only want you. Not Bobby, not Scott, just you."

Logan frowned. "Why would you want some loser like Scott or Bobby when you could have me?"

Marie's lips twitched, almost a smile, before she pulled away and said, "You think I can get a refund on this ticket?"

Gunshots were heard just behind her, people screaming and falling to the ground. Logan reacted on instinct, grabbing Marie's arm and pulling her towards the nearest emergency exit. The screams got louder, and Logan's sensitive senses could smell the blood before Marie could, could hear the snapping of bones and the agonized screams from the civilians. Somehow, Logan knew that the attackers were there for him. He had a habit of dragging drama along with him, and there's no way that an attack on the biggest train station in New York at this time of night _right_ when he walked in was anything but random. Pushing Marie in front of him to shield him from the soldier with guns gaining on them, his back absorbed the brunt of the bullets, a few others striking down innocent people. 

"That's the one Stryker wants!" One soldier exclaimed from behind him, excited. "He said whoever put the Wolverine down gets a reward!"

Stryker.  
The name sounded uncomfortably familiar to Logan. And now, seeing the soldiers and death that came with the name, Logan felt even more uncomfortable. Marie was crying, and Logan could see that she was bleeding, the side of her arm having been hit with a bullet. Logan could fight off a good amount of the soldiers, but then they'd get Marie. He knew what he had to do. The train was just pulling into the station, and the people on it were horrified the gory mess in front of them and screamed for the driver to close the doors. Before they could, Logan shoved Marie through. Just as the door was about to slam shut on his wrist, he shoved the dog tags into her hand before jerking backwards. The train started to pull off, and Logan knew that she understood his silent directions: be safe.

* * *

 

Now, Logan started to run. He knocked a few people over, got hit with a few bullets, but was okay overall. Marie watched him for as long as she could. The train was slow to take off, but gratefully none of the soldiers seemed overly concerned with the people on the train. The men were masked, hands gloved, meaning that even if some survived, it wouldn't matter because they'd never be able to recognize any of the shooters. 

Just as the train slid down a tunnel, Marie saw Logan get hit in the neck with a mysterious dart, watched his body suddenly stop running and drop to the floor. He didn't move. He didn't even look like he was breathing.

She was pretty sure she screamed.

* * *

When Logan woke up, he was laying on a bed that smelled of mothballs and covered in dust. His eyes adjusted quickly to the light. He felt drowsy, something that he hadn't experienced before. Or, not that he remembered. Slowly sitting up, Logan groaned as his head pounded brutally, making him he wish he was dead. He was in a room, obviously. No windows, meaning he couldn't tell if it was night or day. His internal clock felt like it was knocked off kilter. The room was bare except for the bed he was sitting on. The place smelt, and looked, like it had been abandoned for a while now.

Rising unsteadily to his feet, Logan stumbled over to the door, only then realizing that he was shirtless and barefoot. Luckily, whoever kidnapped him left his pants on. Making an escape without pants made everything ten times harder, and he wasn't in the mood for unnecessary stress. He stumbled down the hallway, barely feeling the pieces of wood that embedded themselves into his feet. He'd get them out later. Maybe. If he felt like it.

Logan peeked around a corner, holding his breath, but it did nothing because a voice from behind him almost made him shit his pants.

"About time you woke up." 

Logan whirled around, but lost his footing, instead landing in an ungraceful heap on the floor. Sabertooth stared back at him. Like when they'd met at the Statue of Liberty, he had the vague sensation of....fondness towards the even more feral man. He didn't know why, and that's what made him even more depressed that he didn't remember yet another person. Sabertooth stared back at him, nails scratching at the peeling paint on the wall. His nails, curved and sharpened perfectly, grew longer, making them look more deadly.

"Magneto send you to do his dirty work again?" Logan sneered from the ground.

"Why didn't you sense me coming behind you?" Sabertooth asked instead.

Logan scowled. "Whatever they hit me with hasn't worn off completely yet. You didn't answer my question."

Sabertooth grinned, all teeth and wickedness, and then he turned on his heel, leaving the room without another word. Logan's jaw dropped and he scrambled to his feet, following his enemy. "What the hell! Get back here, bub!" Sabertooth didn't stop. Instead, he reached a room that Logan figured was the living room--couches and an old TV kind of gave it away--and strode up to a bag sitting on the love seat. He took an injection out out of it and Logan, still sluggish and halfway asleep, didn't have time to move out of the way before Sabertooth as shoving the needle inside him and pumping him full of whatever the hell it was. 

Logan didn't fight back though, because the liquid brought feeling back to his body, made him feel normal again. Or as normal as a mutant can get. He felt like an asshole now, because a minion of Sabertooth had saved his ass _and_ given him an antidote to whatever he got hit with. But this guy was still the enemy, current savior or not. Logan swallowed loudly before mumbling, "Thanks, you bag lady."

Something in Sabertooth shifted, but only for a moment. His eyes got softer, his scowl fading away to show longing, before his angry mask snapped back into place. Sabertooth sniffed and looked away, snarling, "What are you waiting for, runt? Get--"

Whatever he was saying was ignored by Logan, who, at the word runt, was pulled back years in the past, a blurry, almost happy version of himself, playfully shoving a man that looked exactly like Sabertooth as he said, "Let's go get a drink, runt." Logan's throat burned with strange, sudden feelings.

"You listening?"

"I know you," Logan blurted.

Magneto's feral mutant stared back at him, eyes searching Logan's face, possibly for the truth. But Logan _did_   know him. He swore on his life that Sabertooth, whoever he was before, whoever or _whatever_ they were before, was someone he knew. Whatever Sabertooth was looking for, he apparently found, because he whispered, "I always knew you weren't that good of an actor, Jimmy."

* * *

The train ride was awkward and tense. Everyone who had seen first hand people getting shot and slaughtered in the middle of Grand Central Station were properly scarred for life and would most likely never be the same again. Before, when Marie had screamed at Logan's presumably dead person, the others had gathered around her and offered comfort, because they, too, were suffering.

"Was he your father?" A woman beside her asks, drawing the attention of a few others sitting close by. Her voice broke the silence. "The man who was tranquilized?"

The statement made Marie incredibly self conscience because, no, Logan wasn't her father, but he was certainly old enough to be, and it made her understand Logan's sudden need to push her away. She was sixteen and he had an age unknown to everyone because his healing factor pointed at a very long life span. It just made their situation even worse.

The woman must have seen the look on her face because she smiled and squeezed Marie's hands. "No one is judging you, sweetie. I saw the way he looked at you, how he put your safety first. You mean something to him."

"He a mutant?" A man asks from across the aisle. "That why the bullets ain't hurt him?"

Marie nodded, not bothering to hide it because they'd already seen Logan's super healing in action  
"It....I just got him back. And now he's gone again."

"You know he ain't dead," the woman scolded her. "Don't think like that. That around his neck, dog tags?" Marie nodded and the woman examined the metal that was still warm from when Logan held it. "These was made a long time ago, I know because my grandfather similar ones. If that boy ain't die in the war, he ain't gonna die now. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"Okay," Marie whispered. Wishful thinking should hold her over until she got off at the next stop and called the Professor. "Okay."

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Sadly, school has started for me. I'm in a special program that basically means more advanced classes, and advanced classes mean more work. I also am "apparently" not supposed to be on anything electronic until the weekend, but I say to hell with that so I'll be trying to write this fanfic everywhere I go. Please don't be mad! Love you all!


	11. Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sabertooth reminisces.
> 
> Or the great day that turned back, and the brothers run away together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing. Sorry if this chapter seems a little rushed, I'm trying to multitask between writing this story and doing homework.

Once upon a time, before he turned cold and bitter, Sabertooth was known as Victor. He wasn't always an animal. He thinks his truly feral days started after Jimmy left the group, turning his back and not even giving a proper good bye to his older brother. Maybe it started when he waited for weeks for a post card, a telegram, but instead got nothing but an empty room back at Stryker's base. He remembers aching for his little brother, the only family he had. For a while, he had blamed himself, saying that if he wasn't so rough on Jimmy, if he was more like a big brother and did big brother things, Jimmy wouldn't have left. But he knows that isn't the truth; Jimmy had always been the tamer mutant, always filled with morals and educated thoughts.

He would be the one to tell Victor, _"no, the girl said no, and no does not mean yes, what the fuck is wrong with you Victor,"_ whenever he started getting aggressive with a girl who turned him down. He would be the one to say, "Don't worry about him Victor, he's just jealous because his nails look like flattened plastic, " whenever someone would make comments about his abnormal fingernail appearance and length. Always Jimmy reigning Victor in, holding his big brother's metaphorical hand whenever he was about to get out of line, which was, like, almost all the fucking time.

He had become dependent on his little half brother, subconsciously counting on Jimmy to be the brains of the operation because that's what he was good at, thinking things through. 

But what Victor remembers the most is how it started.

* * *

Victor was thirteen years old and the town reject.  
Maybe it was because of his father, the man no one liked, and that made him unlikable by unfortunate association. Or maybe (and this reason was probably the most likely) it was because of his hands.

His hands were unlike those of the other teenage boys in his village. He spent most of his time hidden in the shadows, watching other boys his age flirt shamelessly with the village girls, confident and beautiful, unlike Victor, with his strange hands and feral like behavior. His time was usually spent doing work assigned by his lazy bastard of a father, and sometimes from the people his father worked for, and he was doing his assigned errands when he met her.

Gloves on his hideous hands, Victor kept his head down as he paid for the groceries for the Howlett's, muttering a disinterested thank you. He spun on his heel to make a quick retreat to avoid bullying from his usual tormentors when a girl slammed into him. She was beautiful, full red lips opened in shock as he spilled some milk over the front of her dress, wetting her breasts and making them transparent through the thin cloth of her silk dress. She brushed blonde hair from her face and smiled sheepishly. 

"Terribly sorry!" She exclaimed, using her handkerchief to wipe at her chest and on him, and he then realized that he had taken the brunt of the spill. He internally winced; he'd be punished for that later. Most likely by a beating. The girl's face turned scarlet when her hands dabbed at his weakly defined chest. "Oh!" she murmured. "I, um, never caught your name. How rude of me!" She giggles a bit. "I'm Marina."

Victor's tongue feels swollen and useless in his mouth., He wants to say something to her, something that's smooth and flirtatious and not creepy, but he can't get his mouth to move, can't seem to form words properly. So he just stands there, mouth agate, until he finally managed to mutter, after a few really embarrassingly quiet moments, "Victor." 

Marina smiles at him, her chest forgotten. Victor stares. He can't help it. This is the closest he's been to a girl. This is the first time a girl has actively engaged him in a conversation that was friendly. And, the most important fact of Victor's non existent love life, this is the first time he's seen breasts. And he's really enjoying it. Something in his pants stirs and he feels his own face turn bright red as he realizes his body is having a reaction to Marina. He quickly shifts the basket of food so that's its hiding the tent in his pants. He doesn't want to lose this opportunity. Not yet. Not when there's still a chance. 

"Pleasure," Marina murmurs, biting her full bottom lip, looking up at him wickedly through her thick eyelashes. Victor isn't sure what his stomach is doing. It feels like he needs to vomit, but there's another feeling there that he can't recognize. "I've never seen you around, Victor." His name sounds delicious when it rolls off her tongue. He wants to taste it. He recoils at the thought, thinking he was being what he heard others call him: a pervert.

"I, uh, I mean I live....I..." He swallows loudly. "It's complicated."

"Oh?" She asks. "How so? You either live here or you don't. And I was rather hoping you did, because I'd like for you to take me out tonight."

 _Okay, Universe,_ Victor thinks bitterly _, thanks for creating this wonder scenario that fulfilled all of my dreams, but I'm sure that this is either a horrible prank or I'm just going to wake up any second and receive yet another beating from my father for sleeping late_. 

"Take...take you out?" Is what Victor says instead. "Like.....like a date?"

Marina laughs. "Exactly like a date." She bounces on the balls of her feet and Victor watches her chest again, enticed by the round, firm mounds. He licks his dry lips, wondering if this is normal, to want this girl, to want to do things to her, things he wasn't quite sure he knew how to do. "You'll pick me up at around 7?"

Victor wants to tell her no for many reasons. His father is one. When people find out who his father is, they hate him by association. And then another reason would be his nails, or even his social awkwardness. Basically, he's the most unfit person to be taking Marina out on a date but somehow, for some reason, he founds himself telling her yes, and she smiles, all pearly white teeth. She kisses him on the cheek and Victor dazedly sets down the basket and takes off his jacket, giving it to her so she can go home looking at least half decent. She smiles again and slowly backs away. Victor watches her go.

As soon as she leaves his line of sight, he runs back to his home, heart pounding for reasons other than the sudden cardio workout.

* * *

James Logan Howlett is the little boy Victor sometimes babysits when his parents and the help are busy. He doesn't mind usually, because James is quiet and busies himself with other things, which is just fine by Victor. 

Over the years, James became Jimmy, and Victor thinks of him as a little brother. It's nice, he thinks, because Jimmy looks up to him and is fascinated by his hands and not disgusted in the slightest and he felt accepted when around the little kid. Jimmy was intelligent, teaching Victor how to read, correcting his grammar and teaching him how to spell really big words, things Victor never had the opportunity to do, being in the lowest class a citizen of the town could be in. He wasn't permitted to go to school. 

Jimmy was patient with him. And in exchange, Victor tried to control his temper.

Jimmy was also very observant. Like today, for instance.

Victor stared at the thick novel in front of him, the words not really there for him because his mind was elsewhere. He thought of Marina and that tent in his pants, wondering what it all meant. He briefly considered not showing up for their date but the idea was quickly squashed. He didn't want to break her heart, and he also wanted to just see what it was like; to be on a date with someone. A while ago, he would do things he wasn't proud of, one of those things being that he followed couples around to see what they did on these dates. He never stayed when the pairs got physical. He felt it was wrong and immoral, even more so than his spying. Now, he wishes he had watched so he would know what to do if Marina wanted something from him.

 "So," Jimmy begins. When Victor says nothing, he continues, "What's got you in such a foul mood? Has your father been drinking again?" 

He was probably the only one Victor voluntarily told about his father's drinking problems. Jimmy never said anything, never judged, and when he knew Victor's father had been starving Victor, he'd save food and water and even offer a little bit of medical aid. He's known Jimmy for a while, been babysitting him since he was just a babe and barely able to stand on his own two feet, gurgling and drooling all over Victor's shirt, giggling as he tugged at Victor dark hair. 

"Nothing," Victor replies. "I'm just a bit tired, is all."

"Right," Jimmy snorted. "Just tell me what's wrong."

Weighing his options, Victor sees no harm in telling the runt about his troubles. "Well...I met this girl in the market today." Jimmy straightens immediately and motions for Victor to continue. Red in the face, he mutters, "And...she wants me to take her out. On a date. Tonight."

Jimmy cheers!  
"Oh, my best friend, Victor, finally settling down! I'm so happy for you! What's her name? What does she look like? Where are you going to take her?"

"I, uh," Victor stammers, heart warming when Jimmy names him his best friend. "I wasn't even sure I was going to go...."

"What?!" James barked. "Of course you're going, you idiot! Come along!" James hops out of his chair and herds Victor to the bathroom attached to his bedroom. "You're going to get cleaned up, and I'm going to tell you what to do since you're obviously clueless. Hurry now! Chop chop! And do get under your nails, Victor, I can see last night's dinner in them."

* * *

"Now, repeat to me what I've told you," James orders.

He and Victor had been in his room for hours, Victor scrubbed raw, hair brushed and nails filed to a reasonable length. They'd been practicing the date, something that Victor never wanted to do again for as long as he lived, but he was grateful. James knew a lot about girls, which was very surprising, considering that James's parents never really let him leave the property. The farthest Jimmy had gone was to the horse stables, which were only a few minutes away from the main house. Victor had been taught manners, how to give compliments, and even how to hold someone's hand.

"I compliment her, hold on my arm, and walk slowly down the path," Victor says obediently. "Then, I ask her how she would feel for a walk, and then, I'll take her to the meadow you told me about, at the back of your property."

"Very good," James smiles. "Now, if she wants a kiss, you'll have to admit you've never kissed a girl before. Lucky for you, there's high hopes that she'll find that adorable and happily teach you."

"I...," Victor shifts in his seat. "Earlier today, she was wet....and I could see through her shirt, and my body had this weird reaction...."

"Weird how?"  
"Are you really going to make me say it?" Victor groaned. "I'm sure you already know!"

James shrugged. "Bodies have a lot of weird reactions. I need to know which one your body had at the moment, when her shirt was wet and allowed you to see through."

Victor blushes and grumbles, "Something was wrong with my...penis."

Silence.  
When Victor looked up, he sees James, his lips pressed together in a thin line as he tried not to laugh. He failed horribly. James started to giggle hysterically, covering his mouth with his hands as he rocked back and forth, almost falling off the bed. Victor's chest heaved with anger and he felt tears suddenly welling up in his eyes. Embarrassment, he realized. 

"Oh," James chuckled, wiping the tears from his eyes. "You weren't kidding when you said your father left you uneducated. Victor, my friend, that was an erection. It happens when the male gets aroused. It's normal, especially for a boy your age. You've reached a point in your life where you're growing, and you start to go through puberty. Your voice gets deeper, you get taller, thicker maybe, your penis grows and you get erections, and you have wet dreams."

"What the hell is a wet dream?"

"Haven't you ever woken up, you know, sticky?"

Victor flushed. James smiled. "It wasn't because you peed on yourself, that you was reaching, well, your climax while you were sleeping. But don't worry, it passes. You know," James said thoughtfully. "That's probably why your nails are growing so much. Puberty makes you grow and it's affecting everything."

"So I'm normal?" Victor wanted to clarify.

James nodded, patting Victor's hand.   
"I promise, Victor, you are completely normal. You're thirteen years old, and this is the time when most boys start to experience these things. You're not a freak, I assure you. Soon, when I am of age, I shall experience those things too. Now, however, I'm content with being a child. Less stressful, you see."

"Oh, shut up," Victor groaned, playfully shoving James off the bed. "It's almost seven. I should head out."

"Good luck," Jimmy whispers. "I hope everything goes well! I'll keep your father busy."

Victor gasped. He'd almost forgotten about his abusive father, who was sure to be wondering where he was around the same time that Victor would be on his date. Grinning sheepishly at little James Howlett, Victor wonders how he was able to have such a good friend, and if it would last. As he bounded out of the huge Howlett mansion, he hoped it would.

* * *

 "You look nice," Victor manages to say without stumbling. And she does. Marina wears a dark blue dress that matches her eyes, her hair falling freely around her shoulders. 

"Thank you!" she beams at him. "Shall we?"

Remembering what Jimmy taught him, Victor held out his arm. When Marina smiled at him, he knew he had done the right thing. Marina tugged him along, leading the way. "I hope you don't mind, but I know just where to go."

"Not at all," Victor murmurs. "What time do you have to be home?"

Marina grins wickedly. "My parents are out of town, so it's just the help taking care of me. They want me back by ten, two hours later than usual. I hope you can stay out that long."

He couldn't, not unless he wanted to risk going home and getting his gut pumped with lead. He really shouldn't. But he nodded, because he wanted to impress her, and because he trusted Jimmy to keep his father busy while he was away. As long as he got home before his dad did and got through his chores, he would be fine. Well, not fine, but he would go to bed without his backside hurting from his father's belt swinging.

About an hour later, Victor found himself sitting beside Marina, staring over the lake. She had brought him to a cliff that looked out over the huge lake that was an important resource for the town. She twined her fingers with his, biting her bottom lip. Victor wanted to kiss her, but decided against it, not wanting to make a fool out of himself for being inexperienced. So far, the night had gone surprisingly well. He had accidentally let some jokes slip, but Marina had found them funny, covering her mouth as she giggled. Victor made a mental note to hug Jimmy extra hard when he got back.

Marina had apparently been planning to ask him out for a while, because she had a picnic set up on the cliff when they got there. When he asked her, she told them that she'd liked him for a long time, but he never noticed her.

"You bumped into me on purpose?" Victor asked, stunned.

Blushing, Marina nodded. "I didn't know how else to get your attention. It worked, didn't it?"

Expecting Victor to be upset, she was surprised when he laughed and said, "People don't like me because of who my father is, so I assumed everyone wanted to stay as far away from me. I learned to make myself oblivious to other people real quick. Essential to survive and all that."

Marina turned her body to face him, studying his face intensely. Victor stared back. He wondered if this would progress to something in the future, a relationship. He wondered if his father would ruin this for him, as he'd done for everything else. Was this just a one time thing, or did Marina feel something for him? Could he return those feelings if she had any? He wasn't very good with emotions, having to hide his away from his father for years. Only Jimmy had been the real him, and he'd accepted Victor. But what would Marina do when she saw his hands? When she learned he was a freak?

Would she run away in fear, telling everyone in the town that he was a monster? He wanted to convince himself that that wouldn't happen, but he couldn't get the thought out of his head. Nothing turned out good for him. Maybe this was a trick, a way for people to hurt him through his weakness, his desire for love. Marina didn't seem like the type of person to turn him in, but he hardly knew her. Just meeting her today and her already asking him to take her on a date was a bit suspicious, but maybe that was his paranoia getting to him. He wanted this. Wanted something to be his, to have something. For someone to want him. Was that too much to ask for?

"Kiss me," Marina orders. Victor's eyes widen in shock. 

"What?"

"Kiss me," She says again.

"I...," he swallows loudly. "I don't know......"

Marina's cheek turn bright pink, but instead of laughing at him or turning away, she scoots herself closer and pulls Victor's face down to hers. "I'll teach you."

* * *

"You're sick again?" Victor hisses as he sneaks into Jimmy's bedroom window and closes it behind him. "I leave you alone for a few hours and you look like death warmed over!"

"Sorry to have inconvenienced you, my Lord," Jimmy coughed. "How was the date?"

"I'm not letting this go," Victor tells him, but says, "It was....fun. She kissed me."

"Oh?" Jimmy smirked. "And did she find it adorable when you told her you didn't know how to kiss?"

Victor glared at him and picked up a block of wood from under the bed, using his nails to carve at it. "You were right about it, I'll give you that. But she still hasn't seen my nails. And I don't want her to."

"Victor-"

"No, Jimmy. I can't.....I can't mess this up. She'll see my nails and think I'm a monster."

"I hardly think-"

The door to his bedroom opens and Victor drops the wooden block, kicking it under the bed and hiding his hands behind his back. Jimmy's father comes into the room, looking at Victor with barely disguised disgust. Victor sneers back. He watches as the man talks to Jimmy, telling him it was normal to be sick. Right. What did he know? Victor wanted to tell him that, yes, it would be normal for a child to get sick once and then go on about their business, but it wasn't normal for Jimmy to be sick almost every other day. Victor's stomach clenched. He couldn't lose Jimmy. Annoying as the kid was, he was still Victor's only friend in this wretched life.

"Your father is calling you, Victor," The man says.

Victor smirks.  
"That's not my name he's calling sir," but he still leaves the room, glancing at a pale Jimmy once over his shoulder. The man soon follows, brushing past Victor. Instead of going downstairs, Victor takes to the shadows, not wanting to be on the receiving end of his father's wrath. Let Jimmy's father take the beating, or even his mother. Not him.

Creeping down the stairs, Victor hides under a little hole in the stairs, watching as his father struggles with Jimmy's father for control of the shotgun, Jimmy's mother screaming from a few feet away. His dad wins and pulls the trigger. Jimmy's father hits the ground. Hard. Jimmy comes running down the stairs and rushes to his dead father, tears streaming down his face. Victor slowly stands, not yet leaving the shadows, but getting closer to the door, knowing he had to get out of there. 

Jimmy screams in agony as bone claws rip through his flesh, sharp and jagged, his scream turning into one of rage as he lunged at Victor's father, burying his claws in his chest. Victor can't breath. He grasps at the wall to keep himself steady, ears ringing as his father speaks his last words.

"He wasn't your father," he breathes, "son."

Jimmy pulls away in horror, looking at his mother for guidance, only to see her scramble away in fear, sobbing over her husbands body. Turning on his heel, Jimmy runs, Victor pursuing.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Also, thank you for sticking with me this long! I know I haven't been updating as much as I should have, but with school, it's hard. But thank you for being patient!


	12. Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing, unfortunately.
> 
> Author's Note: FANS! I AM SO SO SO SO SORRY! I didn't mean for the update to take this long, and the last chapter came a long time ago. I apologize. I was experiencing writers block, and I was extremely busy. But, hopefully, this chapter makes up for it!

**Twelve**

* * *

Marie had to wait a few stops before she was able to get a seat on the train. Waiting for people to pile off the train made her extremely nervous, because with every new person who got on, she couldn't tell if they were normal civilians, or mutant hunters. She had bid a thankful farewell to the passengers who had comforted her on the first few minutes of the train ride. Marie pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She needed a plan.

She had no idea if she was in danger by association; no doubt the men who got Logan had seen her face and decided that she needed to be taken in too just for knowing the Wolverine. 

She was glad that they had had that talk before it all started, even if the major topic wasn't discussed as much as she would have liked. Marie did feel a bit guilty because of her complete disregard for his mental state. With only the past 15 years of his memory intact, with a hell of a lot of blank spaces, it would make sense that Logan didn't know completely if he could trust anyone, how to be in a relationship. It wasn't like he had memories of past experiences. 

_"Besides....one of my memories, the ones I see in my dreams, makes me not want to trust anyone."_

She wishes she knew what Logan meant by that. Had Logan relived another day in his past? Did he fall in love with a girl and get betrayed by her? That would explain his constant, somewhat subconscious bitterness and anger. Marie thinks that if anyone deserves to be angry all the time, it's Logan; it's not like he could let go of the anger when he couldn't remember what he was angry about. She feels jealous of whoever this woman is, because he knows things about Logan that she doesn't know, probably things that Logan doesn't know himself. 

Sighing heavily, Marie looked up at the faded, dirty map on the wall and squinted at it for a better look. She was far from Westchester, she realized, and that meant she would have a longer time getting back to the mansion. But with men with guns and grenades on the loose, she probably wouldn't make it back alive. She wonders how the men could tell that Logan was a mutant, despite them knowing his name. Logan did give off a particularly dangerous vibe, and he was well built, more so than the average man. But he did normal things like chew on cigars and wear a leather jacket. Marie briefly considers that the men had seen Logan's dog-tags, but she quickly steers away from that train of thought; unless one of the men could see that far away in a crowded train station, it just wasn't possible. 

 _Maybe the white streak in my hair makes me noticeable,_ she thinks. _No doubt Magneto's stunt a while ago made me well known to the mutant and even non-mutant population alike_. 

The doors on the train opened, and Marie decided that she would get off here and make the call to the mansion. She stumbled up into the city and felt her heart rate increase. It was dark outside now, and although hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, walked about, she felt like she, herself, was the center of attention, felt eyes on her. In the dark, it would be even harder to make out someone if they were wearing camouflage.

Looking down at herself, Marie realized that she made herself kind of obvious, wearing satin, elbow length gloves. Taking a deep breath, Marie slowly slid the gloves off her hands and stuffed them in her pockets. She could taste the fear on her tongue and she prayed to whatever gods existed that no one accidentally touch her. She tried to put on an air of confidence and, when she thought she could handle it, she strode to the closest person she could see with a phone in their hands.

"Excuse me," she said. "Would you mind if I used your phone?"

The man grins at her, looking over her body with perverted interest. Marie swallows bile and smiles even more. The man hands over his phone and she can feel his eyes on her ass as she walks a few feet away and makes the call she's been waiting to make for hours.

"Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. This is Ms. Monroe speaking, how may I help you?" 

If she hadn't known Storm's voice, Marie would've hung up, confused, at the name Ms. Monroe. Storm sounded tense, and Marie proceeded slowly.

"Storm?"

"Rogue?" Storm cries out in relief. "Oh, thank god! With the attack at the train station and you and Logan missing, I...we thought..."

"Someone has Logan," Marie whispers, looking around for any listeners. All she sees is the man who let her borrow her phone, still eyeing her like she's a piece of meat. She wants to touch his skin. "I got away, but I don't know where I am."

"Rogue?" Professor Xavier's voice comes through on the phone, panicked. "Rogue, where are you?"

"I don't know!" Rogue exclaims. "I think.....I think I'm ten train stops away from Westchester. This guy is letting me use his phone, but with the government-"

"Government? It was the government who attacked you?"

"I couldn't really tell," she admits. "It all happened so fast. One minute, Logan and I are talking, and then the next, shots are fired and civilians are slaughtered."

"And Logan? What happened to him?"

"He was hit in the neck with a dart. Based on what I heard, it had to have been made specifically for him, because nothing I've seen could take him down, not even a bullet to the chest, yet a dart makes him hit the floor within seconds."

"What did the men say, Rogue? I need to--Get the jet, Ororo, and get the team ready--know exactly what he said.

"Um," Marie racks her brain, struggling to get past the traumatic scene of bodies lying on the floor, lifeless and bloody. "He said, _'That's the one Stryker wants! He said whoever put the Wolverine down gets a reward!'_. After that, it was just endless gunfire. How long until you get here? I have this really bad feeling," Marie looks back at the man, trying to fight down the bundle of panic that wants to push it's way into her chest.

There's a brief silence, and it unsettles Marie because she never knew the Professor could have such a stunned, horrified silence. His voice is quiet and calm when he says, "Marie," she doesn't have time to question how he knows her real name because he continues with, "Run."

The line disconnects. Time seems to slow down in the next few moments. Marie slides a hand into her pocket to grab a glove, discreetly sliding it over the phone she used, while turning to look at her surroundings. As if they'd gotten a signal, dozens of masked people slowly separate themselves from the crowd, pulling guns from their pockets in perfect synchronization. She hears her heart pounding in her ears, hears the blood rushing dangerously fast through her veins. 

The man who had let her borrow the phone has a gun too, and his leering is part lust, part disgust as he puts his finger on the trigger, pointing the gun at her head.

She doesn't think, tries not to pay too close attention to any one weapon, and chucks the phone at the man's gun, blocking the bullet just in time. Marie darts into the crowd, narrowly escaping getting grabbed by a cursing woman. Her legs burn as she pushes past people, gasping for air. She doesn't want to think of what will happen if she doesn't find somewhere to hide, but she does anyways. She wonders if there's a dart made especially for her, or if she'll just get hit with anything they could get their hands on. She stays in the crowd, though, because she knows that the group, whatever their name was, wouldn't make a scene again, not after the incident at the train station that apparently everyone in New York knows about, if Storm's knowledge of the event was anything to go by. 

Taking a risk, she glances behind her. Five of the masked figures are hot on her heels, ready to apprehend her. She whips back around and slams into someone's chest. Someone with a pistol in their bare hands. Bare hands. Marie grabs onto his hands, gasping as she feels the memories surge through her, colors and voices fading in and out as she drains him dry. She doesn't let go, even when his hands go limp. She feels a need for revenge in her blood, a need to avenge Logan. The man in her hands is cold now, dead, and she stumbles away from his body, tearing her eyes away from his bluish purple flesh. The flesh of the dead. The people chasing her stare at her in silent horror, their masks hanging a bit because their sweaty faces. 

Marie, trembling, fights her way back into the crowd, people running away from her in fear, their eyes looking between her and the dead body.

* * *

She's walking quickly through a random park when a hand clamps down on her glove covered wrist. Her mouth, which opens to scream, is covered to. She feels lips at her ear.

"It me."

Her body sags at the sound of Scott's voice. He releases her, grabs her hand, and tugs her back onto the street, taking her through alleys and hidden trails. He's donned in his X-Men suit, gloved hands looking a little scuffed. She doesn't ask. She doesn't know if she'll speak again; she's still horrified that she killed someone in cold blood just that day. Her hands feel bloody and soiled, even though she hadn't drawn blood when she made the man die. She had just sucked the life out of him, his comrades watching in horror as a teenager took the life away from their friend with just a bit of prolonged physical contact. If she wasn't on someone's hit list before, she sure as hell is now. 

"Rogue," Cyclops stops and turns to face her, mouth frowning in what she thinks might be concern. His visor is half lit from one of the streetlamps nearby. His hands are, for some reason, still locked around her wrist. She wants to tell him to get off, tell him that only Logan can hold her. But Logan wasn't here. Maybe he was dead. Her throat burns with restrained, hysterical sobs. "Rogue, look at me." She looks at his visor, unsure if she's actually looking him in the eye or not. "He's okay. We're going to find him. But right now, we need to get out of here, get back to the mansion."

She feels herself nod, but she feels empty inside. She can't blame Scott for not picking up on her feelings. Sure, she was upset at Logan's disappearance and possible death, but she had just taken someone's life for Christ's sake! Maybe Scott never had to do that. The X-Men were, after all, based off the Professor's reluctance to be violent unless absolutely necessary. Sometimes, she hates that Professor is such a pacifist, because when Sabertooth had his arm around her throat, the only thing she wanted the most in that moment was to run into Logan's arms, but Professor let Magneto and Sabertooth go, taking her with them. 

Cyclops continues to drag her through the dirty pathways. She tried to pay attention, look where she was going, but she just continued to stumble alongside him, blanking in and out of focus. Finally, Cyclops jerked to a stop and she had to dig her feet into the ground to stop herself from running into him. She looks around him and sees a huge field with the Blackbird in the middle. Several dozen trees are knocked over, no doubt in their haste to get to her. She wonders if they'd still let her go to the school when they found out she killed someone. Her heart jerked painfully. Her thoughts were a constantly battling each other: _worry about Logan or continue to analyze every second of the murder I committed?_

She follows Cyclops to the jet, her legs burning again as she had to hike them up over tree roots and climb over horizontal trees. Storm and Jean were waiting for them at the opening, and a man with blue fur stood beside them. He didn't have on the traditional skintight suit--he was too broad for that, she thought--but he did have on a jacket that was most likely made of the same material. 

"Rogue!" Storm strides forward and pulls her into a hug. Marie's stiff at first, brain short circuiting before she remembers that, when someone hugs you, you hug back. She slowly lifts her arm and wraps them around Storm's slender figure, face buried in the weather goddess's shoulder. Before she can stop herself, she's bawling. Gross sobbing, snot everywhere, and laughing hysterically. Storm's arms wrap around her tighter and that's it. She's wailing now, emotions ripping through her body too fast for her to just focus on one. She's being carried, she realizes, halfway through her sobbing. Someone sets her down on a chair and straps her in. Storm's face is blurry through her salty tears.

"I killed someone," she hiccups. " _I killed someone_. Ikilledsomeoneikilledsomeone."

"Rogue," Storm whispers, "calm down. I can't help you if you don't calm down."

Marie tries to calm down, tries reign her haywire emotions in, but she just can't. She's been bottling things up inside her for too long, and now that they're out, she can't push it away. Her heart is still pounding and her head is starting to hurt. She thinks she can still hear Storm talking to her before she blacks out.

* * *

When she comes to, she's laying down on a cot in what she thinks is the back of the plane. She's never seen this room on the plane before, but since the last time she was on a plane she was unconscious, she couldn't say she had really had a chance to look around. 

"You're awake!" A deep rumbling voice comes from the doorway and she turns her head to look up. The blue man from last night is there. He has glasses perched on his nose, and his hair has this purplish tint to it when the light hits it a certain way. 

"Who are you?" The words come out harsher than she means them to, but it rolls off the man's fur, er, skin. "You're blue.  
He chuckles.

"If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that one, I'd be richer than the Professor," he muses, moving to sit on the cot across from her. He folds his legs up so he's sitting with his legs crossed. It makes him look slightly less menacing. She can't take her eyes off his gleaming teeth. "I'm Hank McCoy, a member of the X-Men. But if you'd like, you can call me Beast."

"You give yourself that name?"

His eyes flash and for a moment, he looks like he's in pain. But then, a second later, it's gone. "No, a friend of mine gave it to me a long time ago."

"Are you a fossil like the Professor, too?" Marie blurts, blushing.

Hank grins, blue lips pulling up over his sharp canines.  
"I'll tell him you said that. But no, I'm a few years younger than Charles, although, if he were the one to tell the story, he'd swear up and down that I was in diapers when he picked me up."

"You might as well have been," Jean appears in the room, smiling softly at Rogue before she sits next to Hank. "You were the most socially awkward person I had ever met in my six year old life." Marie raises her eyebrows. They've known each other for that long? "I didn't even know there's was a blue, furry man in the mansion until Charles dragged you out of the lab by your lab coat."

"I wasn't social awkward," Hank grumbles, looking awfully put out. "I was simply more comfortable around science than I was around children. You were the most snot nosed of them all, if I recall correctly."

"Don't trust his judgement, Rogue," Jean tells her. "He's getting old, it wouldn't surprise me that his memory's slipping." She eyes Hank thoughtfully. "I think I like this Hank better. You were too scrawny when you looked like your old self."

"You weren't born this way?" Marie asks, surprised. "I...I thought..."

Hank shakes his head.  
"No, for many years, my mutation consisted of having....well, I had large hands for feet. But one day, I tried to create a serum that would make a person look normal, but wouldn't hurt their mutation in any negative way for myself and....a friend." His eyes are gazing past her, looking at something she can't see. Jean puts a comforting hand on Hank's furry hand, smiling sadly. "She changed her mind, and I had forgotten that I had left my serum with her and took her serum with me. I took the wrong serum. For a few seconds, I thought it had worked. My feet were normal feet. I wasn't a freak anymore. But then they got larger, and larger, and then I started to turn blue and grow fur."

Marie frowns.  
"So far, you're the only blue person I know on the team. Who else....," she racks her brain for every blue person she's ever met. She lands on Mystique, and she recoils. Hank nods sadly. She wants to ask a million questions: _How did she end up so cold and ruthless? Did you love her? Did she love you? Did the Professor know her? Was she on the team once?_ She holds them back, however, when she sees Hank clench his fists in silent anger. She marvels at his self control. "Well," she murmurs. "At least you had a family."

"Yes," Hank says softly. "Yes, I suppose I did."

"You still do," Jean reminds him. "Both of you. The mansion is our home, and everyone in it is our family."

There's sadness there that makes Marie wonder if they'd lost any of their family, but instead of asking, she sits there with Hank and Jean in comfortable silence.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave comments to tell me what you think!


	13. Thirteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rogue hears voices in her head and Logan questions if he really wants to know his past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.
> 
> Author's Note: A lot of people enjoyed my last chapter, because it was so action packed. I hope this chapter is good enough for the masses!

**Thirteen**

* * *

The trip back to the mansion felt like days, but Rogue knew it was only hours. She wondered if this was how Logan felt after he killed someone with his claws. Maybe he did feel like this, but he learned to get over it. Would she ever get over it? She hated how she was stuck on that one event. It was hard to replace the murder with a happy memory. Honestly, she never expected this. 

Sure, it was common knowledge that mutants weren't the most loved people on the planet, but she didn't think that she would ever be one of the mutants to take the life of a normal human being. She figured that that was more of Magneto's thing. She shuddered, grimacing. She was as bad as Magneto and his Brotherhood, killing people. She knows she did it in self defense, but that didn't make her feel any better. In fact, it just made her feel worse. She tries not to sort through the memories she stole from the man, because she doesn't want to see his life from his point of view. Maybe he had a wife and kids he wanted to go home too after he killed her. Maybe he had a dying mother. Everyone had something in their lives that made them seem like they weren't completely horrible people. She knows because she saw Magneto's memories before.

When he'd put her into that machine and their skin touched, she learned that, once, he did not hate humans. She saw his years in the camps, the starving, the fear, the...violation. And she saw Erik watch his mother get shot right in front of him. She understood him, kind of, after being in his head. She saw what Shaw did to him, what Shaw made him become. Erik, no matter how hard he tried to remain himself, somewhere along the way, he became Shaw. It became evident when he left Charles on the beach with a spinal injury, after he tried to put the blade on Moiria Mactaggert, the CIA agent who had sided with them during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when he took Mystique away from Charles.

Marie furrowed her brow. She was on a roll now. Magneto was easier to analyze than the dead man, somehow.

 _Mystique was a hypocrite,_ Marie realizes. The biggest one. Her and Magneto. Magneto and Mystique complain about not being accepted, but when the Professor accidentally read their minds, they flipped their shit and made him feel bad about being a telepath. Marie knew how much it tore the Professor up inside. She had caught him sitting on the patio outside his office a few times, a solemn look in his eye, as if the entire universe stood on his shoulders. 

"It's nice to know you think so highly of me."

Marie jumped, hand flying over her heart as she spun around to face the Professor. He smiled at her from his wheelchair and rolled forward until he sat next to her in the gardens. 

"Hello, Professor," Marie murmured. 

He smiled. "You know you'll have to accept that you killed a man, Rogue." Marie tensed, both at the other name and his blunt statement. "I know it's difficult to accept, but I know what it feels like."

"You ever kill a man, Professor?" Marie snaps.

Charles smiled sadly.  
"Once," he admits quietly. "On purpose."

Marie gaps at him as her cheeks flush with shame. 

"Don't feel bad, my dear," Charles said. He gets a faraway look in his eye as he remembers. "He was my stepfather. Ever since my father had died, my mother's taste in men had gone from decent to extremely dreadful."

"What happened, if you don't mind me asking?"

There's a good two minutes of silence before Charles begins to speak again.  
"Before Mystique was Mystique, she was Raven, my younger, adopted sister. Raven and I were alone in the house with Cain. My mother was out with friends and Cain's son, my step brother, Cain Jr., was currently terrorizing the kids down the road. Raven had just gotten out of the shower when he cornered her." Marie frowns as his face grows darker, eyes filling with silent rage as he continues, "She was just a child, about 7 or so. I wasn't so far off. My powers, I later realized, were not yet skilled enough to hide Raven's true form from Cain. She had not yet gotten the control to hide, you see. And Cain, oh, he was a sick man. He cornered Raven when she got out of the shower and tried to rape her. For the first time, she called out to me with her mind. She screamed for me."

Charles took a deep breath. "I don't think I've ever run so fast in my life. I...I was there, and yet I wasn't. I just knew that I had to protect Raven at all costs, and so I grabbed Cain's mind, and I.....," Charles pauses, hands gripping the arm rests of his wheelchair tightly. "I squeezed. I made his brain die slowly, painfully. I ordered Raven to leave the room. I didn't want her to see what I had become. When I was sure she was gone, I killed him. Made his brain burst. The bathroom and the hallway was quite messy. I made sure Raven was okay and then told her to hide in my closet. I cleaned up the blood, dragged Cain's body down to his lab on the first floor, farthest room in the house, and after I locked the door from the inside, I set the room on fire. I made it look like an accident. But I think Cain Jr. always knew what I had done."

Marie swallowed heavily. She felt bad now, for bringing up what was clearly a painful memory for him. She always thought that he seemed to be weathered down, but she hadn't wanted to pry. The Professor smiled at her, his aged face wrinkling slightly. 

"I learned to live with it, but it was a challenge, I admit. It became even worse to handle after...Erik and I were no longer fighting on the same side." Charles smiled sadly. "He always called me soft, said I never had to make any of the hard decisions. But he didn't know what he was doing, he wasn't aware that his actions would always have consequences. Of course, if he finds out that I blame him for the way mutants are viewed, he'll throw a fit."

"You wouldn't be _lying_ ," Marie argued. "I've seen inside his head, Professor. He's killed people before it was even about mutant rights. He's a monster. Sometimes, in his memories, I can see the man he used to be, but that isn't him anymore. I hope you know that."

Charles nodded, and he looked miserable.  
"He took her from me," he murmurs. "Raven. He made her a killer, and turned it on me, said I was too controlling. But what would Erik know? He never had to hide, he didn't give off an heir of abnormality. He could blend in without trouble, Raven could not. He made me into the bad guy, even though I just wanted to protect her. He said I was ashamed of her, just because I would prefer not to stare at her naked body."

"He sounds like the ultimate dick."

Charles chuckles. "Yes, if you wish to use those words to describe him. But I miss the way things were before. We lost so many."

"Who did you lose?"

"Banshee," he sighed. "Azazel, Emma, Riptide, Angel. Of course, only Banshee, Sean, was an X-Men, but the others were still mutants, and so it still hurts. Erik blames that on me too."

Marie snarls in disgust, "And what could you have done? While he was in prison like the criminal he is, you were in a wheelchair. What were you gonna do, roll your way through the labs, guns ablaze?"

He laughs, truly laughs, and it's beautiful. "I'm sure that Erik ignores logic because he doesn't want to admit that he's been wrong for a very long time."

Marie looked away, staring down at her gloved hands.  
"Something's coming, Professor," she whispered. 

"I know," he said quietly. 

* * *

Logan stared at his half-brother--it was strange to call him that, to acknowledge the relationship between them--unsure if he was angry or intrigued. He did not want to remember as much as he thought he did. He'd seen some memories in his dreams, and if that was the life he lived before, then it was nothing worth remembering. But at the same time, he wanted to know who he really was, who he came from. He didn't want to go on with his life only to run into people who knew things about him that he didn't even know about himself. 

Sabretooth--he had suggested that Logan call him Victor, but he wasn't going to do that--stared back, long, curved finger nails scratching a pattern into the wooden chair he sat in. Oddly enough, this setting felt familiar to Logan. He can vaguely recall sitting with Sabretooth somewhere, a drink in his hand, smirking as his brother chattered about his latest conquest.

"If you're really my brother," Logan started, ignoring his brother's arched eyebrow, "then why did you join Magneto? Obviously you knew I was still alive. So why'd you leave me on my own?"

"I didn't think you wanted me around," he admitted. "We got into a fight the last time we saw each other, and when I saw you after that, I assumed you were still mad at me and wanted nothing to do with me. Where else was I going to go? You can't be a mutant and alone in this world. That's like suicide." 

"You left me alone," Logan pointed out. 

His brother shrugged.  
"I figured you'd be better off than most mutants, with those metal claws of yours. Besides, soon enough you ended up with Xavier, right?"

Logan wanted to tell him that that was beside the point, but he didn't want his voice to reveal how hurt he was that his brother left him on his own so he could go gallivanting with Magneto and his crew of homicidal maniacs. There was also a part of him that didn't want to admit that this wasn't how he imagined his family. He had often thought of a family, making one up and giving them each personalities and such. It was...heartbreaking to have a half brother that left him to his own devices after he had his memory wiped. Logan did have some vague memories of himself and...Victor, doing brotherly things. He can sometimes get a semi clear picture, and he can dream about himself and Victor fighting alongside each other, Victor giving up his food so he could have something to eat, Victor taking care of him when he got sick. But that wasn't who Sabretooth was now. That day on the Statue of Liberty, he was willing to sacrifice a little girl just because some crazy, holocaust surviving, Nazi killing, hypocrite told him to.

Deciding that he could find out about his past another day, Logan got to his feet and dusted himself off.

"Well, not that this hasn't been fun, but I need to get going."

Sabretooth got up, following Logan to the door, watching as his little brother shoved his boots back on his feet and donned his trademark flannel shirt. He pulled a cigar out his pocket and stuck it in his mouth.

"Where are you going?"

"Away from you, ya sick bastard," Logan barked. "What did you think was going to happen, I was going to run back into your arms and be some kid who you left behind? I don't think so, bub. Nice talking to you. Let's not do this again."

"Hey," Sabretooth snarled, digging his claws into Logan's meaty bicep. "You don't just get to leave!"

"From what I've heard, it wouldn't be the first time."

Jerking away, Logan yanked open the cabin door and stepped out into the world.

* * *

"We need to find Logan," Scott said, as soon as everyone was in the room. 

He had called a meeting of the X-Men, and had told Marie that she was also welcome to sit in, since she was also a person who was attacked by the mutant hunters. Beast, Storm, Jean, and the Professor sat around round table in one of the empty rooms in the Professor's large mansion. Marie sat between Professor and Beast, feeling comforted by Charles' hand on hers and Beast's commanding presence.

"We don't know for sure that he was taken," Jean suggested weakly.

Marie shook her head.  
"They hit him with something. He dropped like a sack of bricks. But...," Marie allowed a small sliver of hope to alight within her. "I didn't see them drag the body away."

"It has to be someone who was already an enemy of Logan," Beast reasoned. "Why else would they have something that would knock him out specifically? You can't just give any mutant a stunner, we would all react differently. This person had to have had Logan's blood or Logan himself in captivity at some point."

"Maybe they're the ones who took Logan's memory!" Marie exclaimed. "It makes sense! Logan got the drop on whoever was holding him, but obviously his captors couldn't let Logan go, not when he knew too much. And Logan can't be killed, at least, not in any ways that we know of."

"I should have agreed to look into his mind," Professor X sighed. "Logan's memories, the ones that were buried deeply, could have helped us."

"That reminds me," Jean said, leafing through a thick folder filled with papers. "Like I said, Logan's entire skeleton is metal. Professor, you admitted that entering Logan's mind was difficult, which can be a result of the metal surrounding his brain. You weren't able to get any deeper than a few particularly loud surface thoughts. So the person who erased his memory couldn't have been a telepath. You and I are the strongest telepaths we know of, so unless the people who attacked Logan and Rogue had a telepath on hand of our level...Logan's memory was taken another way. A way that-"

"Was specifically designed for him," Storm murmured. "Someone purposefully created a way to control Logan without needing another mutant to do it."

Marie retreated within herself, trying to remember if Logan had said anything about his past, whatever parts he could remember. Logan didn't know much, so what he did say would just be his subconscious trying to reform itself, trying to reopen Logan's mind to his deeply buried memories

_Hey, darlin'._

Marie yelped, almost falling out her chair in surprise. Professor X stared at her in astonishment, no doubt hearing what she had.

"What is it?" Beast asked.

"I....I think I just heard Logan in my head."

"What?" Jean asked. "That's....I didn't think you had any telepathic abilities. Logan doesn't either."

 _Ain't no one said anything about being telepathic, you dumb bitch,_ the Logan in her head barked.

"He called you a bitch," Marie blurted, face reddening. "Sorry."

"Extraordinary!" Professor X exclaimed. "Hank, write this down!" Beast scrambled for a pen and paper, the other X-Men leaning in closely. "It appears that Marie's gift allows her to retain a part of a person's mind if she's held onto them for a long period of time."

"How long did you hold on to Magneto for?" Beast inquired. 

Marie gaped at him.  
"I'm not really sure," she admitted. "I mean, he pushed all his thoughts into my head, stuff about controlling metal, but when he did that, he had to dig far back into his own mind. I guess some of that transferred to me?"

"Do you hear Erik in your head?" Charles pressed. 

Marie shook her head.  
"Not really, Logan's voice is louder, more insistent."

"She and Logan did have contact," Scott pointed out. "When he...stabbed her, she held onto him to heal herself. And they've gotten pretty close over his time here, so no doubt they've been in contact more than once."

Marie tried very hard not to think of her time in Logan's bedroom when Logan had her pinned to the bed, making her head spin and he pressed kisses into her skin and tried to devour her. Charles stared at her, frowning, and she quickly looked away, hoping that he wouldn't confront her about her very much illegal relationship with Logan, who was probably as old as dirt. Just like Charles.

The corner's of the Professor's mouth twitched slightly.

"Marie," Storm says. "Try to talk back to him. Maybe he can tell us who would want to hurt him."

 _Who wants to hurt me?_  Logan wondered.  _How about, you know, everyone on the planet Earth since 1826._

"Fuck," Marie breathed. "He said that everyone's wanted to hurt him since 1826."

Mouths dropped open.  
"Logan is that old?" Scott spluttered. "Impossible! That would make him-"

"One hundred and seventy four years old," Beast finished for him, almost bouncing in his chair with excitement. "Do you know what this means? Logan's very mutation is to heal itself! And it's even more amazing when you realizing that Logan did not always have the metal skeleton."

"Wait, _what_?" Marie asked. "How can you determine that?"

"Well," Beast said calmly. "The kind of technology it would take to give someone an entirely metal skeleton wouldn't have been invented yet. I know that Howard Stark created some...interesting things, but that wasn't until the era of Captain America. So, we can deduce that Logan received his metal skeleton just a few days prior of having his memory erased, which we can calculate to about roughly fifteen years ago. That also means that Logan spent a good part of his life living through smallpox, polio, everything! Oh, I wish I could meet him," Beast fangirled.

Marie tuned out the next words, trying to process everything she'd just heard. Logan wasn't a middle aged man, he was actually a one hundred and seventy year old fossil. She didn't love him any less because of his age, but still! He was ancient! What had he lived through? What had he seen that made him so wary, so attracted to isolation? Had he had anyone during those long years? Had he ever fallen in love? Did...holy _shit_ , did he have any _children_?

 _No, I didn't have any childre....okay, I had one kid, but he died before he was even able to walk._ Logan's voice became bitter before it softened.  _But I did have a brother. Still have, if I'm not mistaken. He's older than me, I think my eight years._

"Guys!" Marie exclaimed. "Logan just told me that he had a brother that's eight years older than him. He's still alive!"

"Someone else?" Beast said more to himself than anyone else. "I wonder if their healing speed varies..." He jotted something down in the spiral notebook he was using, his huge, blue, furry hands moving swiftly across the paper. 

"Who is it?" Charles asked. "Who is his brother?"

Marie asked a question in her head, wondering if subconscious Logan could hear her.  
 **What's your brother's name?**

 _Victor,_ Logan replied _ **.** Victor Creed. But he also goes by Sabertooth._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave comments telling me what you think!


	14. Fourteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author's Note: I am so sorry for the late updates!

**Fourteen**

* * *

"You guys aren't gonna like this," Marie whispered. "His brother is the same man who held me by the throat outside of the train station."

Now it kind of made sense, at least to her. Sabretooth was focusing mainly on Logan on the Statue of Liberty, which didn't make any sense since Logan was the hardest of the X-Men to kill. And perhaps Sabretooth's rage had to do with Logan not remembering him, which meant that he didn't know about Logan's memory loss.

" _Sabretooth_?" Jean spluttered. "But he's a--he--he's a monster!"

_Watch it lady, or I'll show you what the brother of this monster is capable of!_

"I never knew Logan had a brother," Charles whispered. "But...how did Logan become captured and Victor didn't?"

_Victor and I...weren't exactly on speaking terms when I got the shiny claws, Wheels._

"He says that he and Victor weren't on speaking terms when he got his metal skeleton. He also called you Wheels."

"Can he _see_ us?" Scott demanded. 

"He is a part of Rogue now," Storm pointed out. "He sees and hears as she does, but he can't do anything else. He's just a...well, like a really real imaginary friend."

"Rogue," Charles said patiently, raising a hand to silence his X-Men. "Could you kindly ask Logan what happened? And Rogue, dear, would you mind if I opened your mind to all of us in this room? So you don't have to relay on this information manually if you don't mind."

"As long as you don't show them my wet dreams, Professor," Marie drawled, feeling a surge of pride when Scott and Beast blushed and looked away.

 _No need to ask,_ Logan said.  _I was in Canada at the time, if I remember correctly. I was a lumberjack. Stryker showed up, saying he needed my help because Victor was going around, killing our old crew._

 _"Could you start at the very beginning?"_ Charles asked _. "We do have some time."_

 _I guess,_ Logan groaned. _So, I got my claws when I was thirteen, I think. I had been sick for a long time, always coughing and had a fever that never seemed to go away. I hadn't known Victor was my brother at the time, so I only knew him as the son of one of the help. He sat in my room with me and carved me some stuff into a wooden block, used to tell me scary stories. Anyways, my dad comes in, and pretty soon he had to leave because Victor's dad was drunk and making a scene downstairs. Vic left soon after, and I followed. I saw Victor's dad shoot my father, and in a fit of rage, my bone claws ripped through my skin. I killed Victor's father, but with his last breaths, he told me that **he** was my real father. _

_I ran from the house, with the intent of running away, when Vic caught up with me. We ran away together. We fought in the wars. All of them. Got shot a few times, got hit in the face with a cannon, same old same old. One day, Victor got carried away and attacked a woman while we were staying in a town and tried to rape her. We were sentenced to death by fire squad. We woke up a while later in a cell, and that's when we met Stryker. He said he was putting together a team of mutants that could help protect others. We didn't have anywhere else to go, so we followed him. The only person on the team who I was somewhat friendly with was Wraith, a teleporter._

_We traveled, saved some people, did some dirty jobs, but we didn't give a shit as long as we got paid and fed. Stryker wanted us to invade this base one day, because the man who ran it had found a priceless metal. After getting information out of him, we went to a village in Africa, and they told us, well, told Stryker what he wanted to know. But to get his information, to get the metal, Stryker had Victor kill a few people, and I stopped him. After that, I left them, Victor calling out after me._

_I stayed away for a few years, met a girl, Kayla._ Logan's tone got darker, and Marie could fill his rage build inside her like a violent storm. _I thought it was love, turned out she was a mutant too, who was working for Stryker. He placed her with me so she could make me soft, use her powers of persuasion to keep my from killing, so that later, when Victor came and faked her death, I believed it and went after him, only to lose, and go running to Stryker to make me stronger. They killed me first, and then filled me with metal. They thought I had died, and I heard them say that they were going to wipe my memory. I woke up, killed a few motherfuckers, and jumped my happy ass into a waterfall._

_I ended up in a barn, stayed with the family for literally a day before Agent Zero, Stryker's right hand butt buddy killed them and blamed it on me. I killed him, and his crew of wannabe soldiers. Wraith and I teamed up to go look for the island where Stryker was, and I teamed up with another mutant, Gambit, when Vic killed Wraith. Gambit took me to the island. He was the only one who ever escaped there and only went back because I promised I was going to kill every son of a bitch in their. I got their, and Stryker revealed to me his plans, and that's when I learned that Kayla was nothing but a manipulative bitch who I, for some really fucking stupid reason, still loved a little. Kayla told me that the reasons he did it was because he had her sister locked away in a cage with other kids._

_I didn't even know the bitch had a sister. Moving on! Turns out Stryker needed me and the other mutants to create a super mutant, who had metal claws and healing like me, laser eyes like this kid in the basement and who could teleport. Stryker got the other mutants because he tricked Victor into getting them with the promise of making Victor like me, virtually indestructible. But it wouldn't have worked, because apparently he wasn't strong enough to survive the procedure. I went with Kayla to free the kids, she got them out, and Victor and I fought against the super mutant, who was actually Wade Wilson, resident jackass, and was now known as Deadpool. I beheaded him, Victor took off, Kayla was shot, I was shot with some metal bullet---hurt like a bitch, let me tell ya--and Gambit and I went our separate ways after he woke me up, my memories gone._

Marie could feel the simultaneous pull out of her mind and sank into her chair, exhausted. The Professor murmured his apologies and Scott handed her a bottle of water from the mini fridge in the corner. Marie wondered if this room was really abandoned or if the X-Men set up shop in a random room in the mansion for meetings. Guilt filled her. She knew that Logan wouldn't appreciate everyone knowing his business, and he didn't want to lose him, not when it was already a struggle for him to trust others, and after today, she saw that he had plenty of good reasons. The first woman he ever loved turned out to be working for the enemy. 

"Guys," Marie said, cutting out their conversation. "Don't....don't talk about it, okay? Don't even mention it."

"Rogue," Jean said. "We...we can tell Logan his past--"

"And what do you think he's gonna do when he finds out that the rest of you know about him, hm?" Marie snapped. "You know it was hard enough getting him to stay in the mansion. If you tell him that the Logan in my head, and by default, me, told you about his past before him, he's going to pissed. You heard what he said-Kayla was the first woman he ever loved and she betrayed him to the person who destroyed him."

Scott sighed, and he ran a hand over his mouth.  
"She's right," he told Jean. "Logan doesn't even call us by our names because he's afraid of getting attached and having everything taken away. It's a subconscious action, because he doesn't remember all the people he lost and the people who betrayed him, but a part of him knows. We'll have to keep quiet, try not to treat him any differently. If you can't help it, say that his kidnapping made you nervous, it should work for a while." 

"Thank you," Marie whispered. "I just....you know how Logan is. He doesn't even like to eat with any of you, and if he finds out that you know about his past...I don't think the mansion would be left standing."

They sit in silence for a few moments, digesting the story they were just told. Beast scribbled away in his notebook, no doubt making plans to get his paws on both Sabretooth and Logan so he could find out about more about their mutations. Jean held Scott's hand, sadness in her eyes as the communicated telepathically. Storm clenched her hands into fists and looked away. The Professor looked like he failed at something.

"It's not your fault," Marie whispered to him.

"I feel like it is," Professor murmured. "I met him once, back in my younger days. I could read his mind then, no doubt because he wasn't covered with metal yet. I should have helped him. I shouldn't have just walked away."

"What could you have done?" Storm asks. "Logan is stubborn. He wouldn't have stayed to fight."

"You never know," Professor sighed. "But I suppose it's history, hm? We should just focus on Logan."

"I think I know where to go," Marie said.

* * *

 When Logan was talking earlier, the one in her head that is, Marie had gotten a brief but very clear picture of a government base. It was the one Logan had been held at when they'd filled him with metal. Marie didn't think it was where he lost his memory. No, she was sure it wasn't. She doubted that Logan would wake up in a place that had caused him enormous pain and not remember any of it, but then again, she didn't know how the brain worked. 

Only Jean, Hank, and Scott came along, and Scott insisted that while they were out of the mansion, she must address him with his mutant name, in case someone was listening. She'd given them the name of the place, Alkali Lake, which was located in Alberta, Canada. Cyclops wondered how Logan could have gotten that far when he was knocked out. Marie refrained from telling him that it was highly possible that he didn't bring himself here. Hank laid in the back of the jet, eyes closed.

"Let's just hope the base is empty," Jean said as we flew quickly through the graying sky. Snow started to fall, and Marie reluctantly pulled her gaze away from the window to look at her.

"It should be," Marie replied. "The base was abandoned since Logan's escape, but if it's not, I can always kill a few people."

"Ha ha," Cyclops said dryly. "Very funny, Rogue. Leave that us."

"I didn't think the Professor approved of killing," Jean chuckled. 

Marie quickly looked away, biting her bottom lip. She felt special, because no one else knew that the Professor killed a man before. It was something they had in common. It was strangely comforting, to know that even Professor Xavier wasn't a flawless human being. He wasn't a bad person, but he had been forced to do some very difficult things in his life. She wasn't the only one, for once. She was glad that Jean didn't read minds without permission.

"And if Logan isn't at this base?" Cyclops asked. "Where else could he be?"

"If Logan isn't here, we could at least grab some of his files," Marie said. "No doubt they're still there. They sure as hell wouldn't throw them out. I think Logan was their most successful science experiment."

"What makes you say that?"

"He survived, which is more than Stryker can say for his other subjects. Logan was the one who was strong enough, stronger than his older brother. And he killed Deadpool, the super mutant."

"Remind me to never piss that guy off," Cyclops snickered in one of his rare moments of laid-back-ness. He was usually extremely stoic, even when he wasn't on a mission.

It took thirty minutes before they got close to the base. Jean landed the jet about a mile back to hide it, and they hiked the rest of the way there, blessing the Professor's soul that he'd insisted that they were hiking boots. Beast didn't need boots, his feet were too big for them, and he was covered in fur anyways, so he wouldn't get too cold. 

"Alright," Cyclops whispered, peering at the base from behind the treeline. "Rogue said the base was underground. When we get in, Beast, you'll go with Rogue to find the files. Jean and I will work on subduing anyone who goes your way. Let's go." 

Marie followed Beast, thankful that she was paired with the large man. Logan had taught her some fighting moves, but she wasn't Bruce Lee. Beast was big, strong, and she was sure his roar was terrifying. She'd just stick to his side like she'd been glued there, and maybe she'd be fine. Jean and Cyclops moved to block the hallway, ushering them ahead. Beast went first, scouting out danger, Marie following close behind him, gloves tucked into her back pocket. Cyclops had said that they weren't going to kill anyone, but she knew that there was no way they could just walk into this base and walk right back out. This was the government, for Christ's sake. 

Beast continued straight down the hallway, and Marie almost followed until a voice in her head stopped her.

 _The files were kept in a storage room where I was changed,_ Logan said helpfully. _Take a left down this hallway, swing a right, and then take the first door on your left._

Marie quickly relayed the message to Beast, and they followed Logan's instructions. Just like he said, when they took the first door on their left, they entered a room that looked like a torture chamber, with a balcony where the people would watch the poor soul. Beast growled, no doubt imagining his own horrifying scenarios that Logan had to go through. Marie was sure that every X-Men had so much respect for Logan that anymore would be on the edge of godly worship. Doing her best to ignore the bed filled with water that was surrounded with glass, metal syringes drilled into it, Marie jogged up the stairs and went to the first door she found. It required a key, which was a lot easier to work with than a hand scanner or a password. Pulling a hairpin out of her long brown hair, Marie jiggled the lock until it gave and pushed the door open. The room was the size of her room back at the mansion and filled with metal filing cabinets and also boxes of papers. 

Saying a quick prayer, Marie went to the last filing cabinet, which sat on the far side of the room. On yellowing tape, it said _"U-Z"_. Deciding that luck was too much on her side, Marie quickly pulled on her gloves and stared leafing through the files until she came upon something interesting. A file said _"Weapon X"_ in big, red, bold letters, and was underlines many times. She opened the file, and saw that only two tests were successful. Logan's full name and mutant aliases was listed, as well as Deadpool's. She stuffed the folder under her arm and grabbed the other Weapon X folders, along with a thick folder--really, it more like a novel--with Wolverine stamped on it. She started to close the drawer when another file caught her eye.

A few papers were hurriedly stuffed in the very front of the drawer of another filing cabinet. Obviously the person was in a hurry, because some of the papers were still sticking out of the cabinet. Hurrying over, knowing she didn't have a lot of time left, Marie opened the cabinet and took out the papers and file that had Jason printed in red letters with a thick black line crossing it out. Looking through it, she saw that it was filled with information on a young man who made his mother insane with his mental mutation. It was also listed that he was being given an injection that allowed him to be controlled by another person, whether they be human or another mutant.

Marie decided to go leafing through other drawers, even though she knew she was running on borrowed time. She grabbed files of Logan's friends and of Kayla, her arm quivering as she added more papers to the load. Grimacing, Marie closed all the drawers and made sure nothing was out of place and had just finished locking the door behind her when Beast appeared, eyes wide.

"I think they know we're here," Beast breathed. "Jean and Cyclops are on their way here."

As he said that, Jean and Cyclops burst through the door. Marie could hear gunshots and yelling from the hallway behind them.

 _There's a door at the back of the room, sweetheart._  

Blessing her mutation for once in her life, Marie said, "Quick! There's an exit this way!"

Of course, she had blessed herself too soon. When she and the three X-Men ran through the door, they found themselves falling into a waterfall. Marie screamed, clutching the files to her chest, wondering if they're was someone at the mansion with the ability to reverse the damage done on papers. Before they could hit the water, Marie felt herself being jerked through the air, her legs flailing wildly.

She hit the ground near the trees, groaning as she rolled onto her back. Jean stood over them, nose bleeding. She wobbled a bit.

"The jet is this way," she slurred, clutching her head as she cried out in pain.

"I'll carry her," Beast said, scooping Jean up before anyone could protest. "Lead the way."

Looking over her shoulder, Marie looked to where they had fallen through, and saw a man standing there, staring at her with hatred in his eyes. Somehow, without Logan telling her, she could tell that this man was Stryker. She hated him. There was a gun in his hand, something he would have used to hurt her had he had the chance.

After running to the jet, an out of breath Marie quickly shut the door behind them while Jean argued that she felt good enough to fly the jet. Marie didn't agree, but she didn't want to argue with the woman who levitated her to solid ground, so she kept her mouth shut. Jean eventually got her way and got in the pilots seat, Cyclops sitting beside her, watching her like a hawk.

"That's a lot of files," Beast noted, eyeing them.

Marie nodded. "I grabbed pretty much everything that had to do with Weapon X and Logan. I also found something about a serum Stryker created that allows him to control mutants. Oh!" Marie dug through the thick stack. "I found some things about Logan's old crew and Sabretooth. They each had their own file, but Logan's was the thickest. He really was their greatest success." She paused. "Will Jean be alright?"

Beast nodded. "She's just a little tired. She had to mentally distract the soldiers and doctors at the base, and when she couldn't do that anymore, she started stopping their bullets in their path. Cyclops had to take a few out. And she had to bring us to safety when we got to the waterfall. How did you know that door was there?"

"The Logan in my head knows this place like the back of his hand, which is really scary," Marie admitted. "That means he spent time here being their lab rat. I hate that."

"I think everyone does."

"Rogue," Cyclops called. "Where to next?"

"Just fly over Canada," Marie replied. "Whoever took Logan wouldn't have been able to get far, and perhaps they brought Logan to Canada to see if they could jog his memory. Besides, Kayla and Logan had a cabin in Canada somewhere. Let's look for that."

* * *

Logan slid his way down the icy mountain, wondering how the fuck Sabretooth got him to Canada without him waking up at least once. He could tell it was Canada because there was no way possible he was in Alaska, and he wasn't in a different country. Whatever they hit him with was strong as hell, meant for him. Sabretooth didn't follow Logan as he left the cabin, but he had looked so depressed that Logan almost stayed. Almost. He couldn't let himself get tied down to a supposed family member who left his no memory having ass alone for fifteen years. Maybe if he had been there when he woke up fifteen years ago, he would've been more friendly. 

Logan hissed as his foot slipped and he crashed into a tree, almost choking on his cigar. He stuffed it in his pocket. Growling a curse, he scrambled to his feet and dusted himself off, wondering if being filled with metal made him heavier and therefore more prone to falling down this mountain face first. Deciding not to risk it, he held on to trees and rocks as he continued his way down. Logan tried not to think of Sabretooth but it proved to be impossible. Logan had always wanted....a companion, because, after a while, driving alone with no one to talk to got a lonesome, and he's sure that he was about two steps away from insane because it wasn't too long ago that he started talking to himself. He wondered what it would have been like, to have a brother. Did Sabretooth tuck him in at night when he was little? Did he know their mother?

Snarling, Logan pushed a tree so hard it uprooted and went tumbling down the slippery slope, knocking over several other trees and crushing a deer, it's blood splattering over over nearby boulders. Logan winced. It seemed he couldn't do anything without someone getting killed.

To take his mind of things, he thought about Marie. Did she make it back to the mansion? Was she worried about him? Were the X-Men looking for him? And if they were, would they even know where to look? He growled, wondering when he'd gotten so soft. Staying at the mansion surrounded by children made him a sap and he felt moments away from an emotional breakdown that would involve a lot of hysterical crying. 

A shadow fell over Logan's path when he was about a quarter of the way down the mountain. Looking up, Logan was met with the surprisingly comforting sight of the blackbird hovering over him. He looked around him and saw that there wasn't a clearing for the jet to land. Deciding to follow his earlier rage filled actions, he started punching and kicking trees out of the way, rolling them down the hill and hoping that no one was coming up the mountain, or else they'd be receiving a quick death by flying plant. The jet landed, the back door dropping open.

Marie ran out to greet him, tears streaming down her face. She threw her covered arms around him, burying her face in his muscled chest. He hugged her back, breathing in her familiar scent. She had come for him. She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the plane, and he followed her inside and saw Cyclops and Jean there, along with a blue man. Jean sat in the pilots seat, and she had the jet back in the air as quick as she had landed it. Logan arched an eyebrow.

"Who's the fur ball?"

Marie pinched him.  
"Ow," Logan grumbled, poking her sharply in the side, pulling her closer when she turned away. "You miss me?"

"Barely," Marie grinned. "I had Bobby to keep my company."

Logan growled, eyes darkening, his grip on her waist tightening, on the edge of painful.

"Don't antagonize him," Cyclops grumbled, making his way over. "Beast just made these upgrades."

"Beast?" Logan arched an eyebrow. "Who gave you that name?"

"An old friend," Beast says. "I'm Hank McCoy, but for some reason my friends insist on calling me Beast."

"You are rather large and intimidating," Storm called from up front, turning around so Beast could see her smile. "We still love you, don't worry."

"Wolverine," Logan said. "But everyone calls me Logan."

"I've heard a lot about you," Beast said, and I fought a wince as Beast began to get excited and talk rapidly. "Your healing powers are amazing, and I wonder if there are any other mutants who can heal like you can. Jean showed me the tests she ran on you when you first came to the mansion, and I must say, I'm impressed! An entire skeleton made of metal, and yet you can still walk! You're obviously a very strong individual, meaning that you have more than one enhanced part of you, super strength, perhaps? And you must have also enhanced senses as well--"

"Woah," Logan said. "You need to relax, bub. I ain't nothin' special, just a guy who can get shot in the head and live. Don't let the word get out though. People find out, and they'll be begging me to be their bodyguards."

Beast grinned, showing off sparkling white canines.  
"My apologies. I just find our genes very fascinating." Beast looks like he wants to say something else, but he decides against it. I'm thankful; who knows if he would've said something about Logan's recently revealed past.

"I have something to talk to you about once we get back to the mansion," Marie told Logan, holding his hand. "It's really important. So don't get kidnapped again, alright?"

Logan smirked and chewed on a cigar he had pulled out of his pocket.  
"Sure, darlin'. I'll do my best."  

* * *

Marie pulled Logan from the X-Men after they made it back to the mansion, leading him out to the garden. She didn't know how she was going to tell him this. She looked at him. He didn't know how innocent he was like this without his memory. He was already tainted by his dark past, but at least he didn't _remember_ it. When he found out that he used to work for a man and kill people, he'd most likely go into a spiraling depression that ended with him disappearing without a trace. She took a deep  breath.

"Logan," she began. "I found something. Something about your past."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave your comments telling me what you think!


	15. Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, own nothing. Also, this chapter will have very brief flashbacks.
> 
> Author's Note: Summer is almost here! I'm going to be pretty busy with trying to get my grades up and final exams, so hopefully this summer isn't as busy as last year's and I'll be able to get more chapters out, maybe even finish the story before school starts up again. Thanks so much for sticking with me this far! It means a lot to me!

**Fifteen**

* * *

Marie and Logan sat in silence for what seemed like forever. 

Logan didn't know if he really wanted to know about his past anymore. From what Sabretooth had told him, he wasn't all too excited to hear what kind of person he was before he lost his memory. However, a part of him still wondered about his friends, family, if he had any. He liked to think that he wasn't always a loner, and that once upon a time, he had been a lively person who didn't smoke the day away while throwing back whole cartons of beer at the same time. He looked away from Marie and stared up at the sky, taking a deep breath, hands shaking. He shoved them into his pocket and bit his bottom lip.

"What did you find?"

Marie smiled sadly at him.  
"A lot." She clutched a huge stack of files to her chest, eyeing him. "Logan, I need you to promise me that no matter what's in these files, you won't run away. You won't run away from me."

He didn't know if he could make that promise, but he nodded to humor her. Marie didn't seem totally satisfied but handed Logan the files.

He stared at them for a long while, trying to see if the names rang any bells. They didn't. His heart clenched painfully as he wondered how many people he had forgotten, how many people he had gotten killed. He knew Marie wanted to stay and offer her support, and he appreciated that, he really did, but he couldn't do this with her here. He couldn't let her see the tears that might fall down his face. He doesn't want her to know about his past, doesn't want her to think of him any differently because he could have possibly been a mass murdering freak that slit throats along side his mentally unstable half brother. 

He took the cigar from his mouth and placed it in his pocket.

"Listen, kid," Logan said. "I know you want to stay and be comforting and all that shit, but I need to do this alone."

Marie frowned at him and didn't get up to leave.  
"You don't have to do this alone, I thought we established that."

"I want to do this alone, Marie," Logan says more forcefully, and Marie's face closes off at his tone of voice. He doesn't regret it. He needs to do this for himself. Not for her, not for the Professor, for himself, to know who he was, what he might become. He wanted to know who took his memory. He wanted to know about the people in his dreams and what they meant to him, if he meant anything to them.

Marie stared at him for a moment longer before jerking her head up and down in a sharp nod. She clutched Logan's hand briefly before slipping inside the mansion, quietly closing the door behind her. 

Even after she left, Logan didn't open the files right away. He just stared at them, wondering how Marie managed to grab such thick files in such a large quantity. There were a lot of names, no doubt they cross referenced each other.

Taking a deep breath, Logan grabbed the file that said _Wraith/Kestrel_ , figuring it to be the less painful of them all, and started to read.

* * *

 The files confirmed one of his worst fears. Victor Creed, Sabretooth, was, in fact, his half brother. They shared a father. Reading the files, Victor was kind of a hero before something happened along the way. Logan thinks that maybe the younger him wrote this a long time ago, when Victor wasn't a crazy, homicidal maniac that liked to kill anything that moved. He can almost see it, the younger, less burdened Logan describing Victor for Stryker. 

 _"He took care of me, ya know?"_ Logan would've said gruffly. _"He was always making sure I ate and got enough sleep."_

Even the people who put together this file couldn't deny that while Victor was probably most likely insane, he did actually give a shit about his younger brother, as seen by the trail of bodies he'd leave behind whenever someone bothered Logan. Reading the files, he found out more than he was ready for. He should've waited.

He could call Marie back, ask her to sit with him so he wasn't so afraid. She wouldn't judge him. She's sit in his lap and read with him, holding his hand when he needed her too and even when he didn't. Shaking his head, Logan went back to reading.

Wraith was apparently the team member he hated the least, which was Logan speak for, _"This asshat was kinda my friend."_ Wraith was a teleporter with seemingly endless amounts of energy when it came to his mutation. He didn't talk much, but he did have a southern accent. If he thought hard enough, Logan could almost hear his voice. _"Would you like a bucket?"_

He remembers that brief conversation, when he'd made his statement that if people were meant to fly, they'd have wings. Thinking back on it, that probably wasn't the most informed thing for him to say, like freakiness wasn't an everyday part of his lives and the people in these files. 

He vaguely remembers thinking that it was just him and Victor against the world. It was kind of refreshing, Logan recalls feeling, because Victor had always put him first, and sometimes, when he wasn't too far into one of his moods, Victor would occasionally listen to his warnings.

Moving onto the next packet of papers, the first sentence he reads is from Victor's file, from an interview that Stryker had made everyone do.

 _"What is the most important thing to you?"_ Stryker had asked.

 _"Jimmy,"_ Victor had replied almost immediately. _"Even when I got nothin', I got Jimmy."_

Closing his eyes, Logan pushed that file away and grabbed the one about Blob. He hoped it would be less painful.

* * *

He had promised Marie that he wouldn't run away, but he needed to get away for a while. Sitting the files under a chair on the patio, Logan ran into the woods, feet silent as he moved swiftly. Ducking and running around trees, Logan barely noticed when his jeans caught on a scraggly bush, or when his plaid shirt was tugged off by a stray tree branch. He ran, air pumping through his lungs, the muscles in his legs crying out in relief as they were stretched and put to work after what felt like ages.

He had missed this, missed the freedom that came with running. When he ran, there was nothing else in the world but him and whatever was straight ahead. He and Victor used to do this, he thinks suddenly, a hazy memory slipping in front of his eyes. Victor would also clock him over the head before dashing off, cackling like a mad man, Logan chasing blindly after him. Victor would sometimes let him win, but when Logan got older, he was able to win the race on his own, something that never ceased to make Victor moody. As he ran, parts of his life came to him, as if all it took was reading the files to bring forth some answers about his mysterious life.

_"We're brothers, Jimmy," Victor said urgently, nails digging into Logan's shoulders. "And brothers stick together no matter what, alright?"_

_Logan nodded shakily, fighting back tears, trembling from the cold that his robe didn't keep out._

_"Can you run?" Victor asked. Dogs howled and panted not far behind them. Logan cast an uneasy glance at the woods, scared of what he'd encounter if he went any deeper. But Victor was here, Victor with his strength and speed and who had always carved him little animals on wood blocks with his nails and blushed when Logan complimented him. "Can you run, Jimmy?"_

_"I can run," he replies, and he feels himself get lighter and Victor takes his hand and tugs him along, deeper into the waiting darkness._

Logan panted, eyes stinging because he would raise a hand to smack the branches out of the way. Logan wonders where this Victor went, but he couldn't really judge. Time changes a person. He liked to think that Victor had maybe just been led astray, but a part of him felt that it was somehow his fault that Victor went flying off his already unsteady rocker.

_"We can't just let you walk away," Victor barks, glaring at Jimmy with dark eyes that screamed at him, screaming **don't leave me Jimmy you're all I've got**._

_Logan stops and turns around, looking at his brother, something in his eyes as well. He wanted to say, "Come with me, you asshole, and then you wouldn't get left behind." because Victor was his brother and he didn't really want to leave without him, not when his entire life up to that point had been with Victor. He looks at Victor and wants to tell him so many things in that moment, and he's never been really good with words and expressing feelings, but he really wants to remind Victor that brothers stick together no matter what and that Victor is the only person he's ever loved and that whatever he's doing better stop right the fuck now because this isn't the time for-_

_But he doesn't say any of that. Instead, he rips off his dogtags and tosses them on the ground, stomping into the woods._

_Every step drains the life out of him as he struggles to not go running back to the camp when Victor starts shouting._

_"Jimmy! Jimmy! **Jimmy**!" _

In his rage, Logan attacks a grizzly bear and kills it slowly, but it doesn't make him feel any better.

* * *

Marie didn't see Logan until the next day during dinner.

She had stayed away all night, fighting the urge to run back outside and embrace him. She hadn't read any of the files when she had grabbed them because she figured that Logan deserved to know about his past first. But she was dying of curiosity. She wanted to know who had taken Logan's memories as much as he did, maybe even a little bit more. She didn't hear Logan come in last night, and she nearly went into a panic attack when she realized that she left the world's hardest to track mutant outside by himself, where he could have ran off, and she wouldn't even know it. Her fears had been quelled when she was nearly asleep and the bedroom door opened, Logan's furry head peeking in quickly before he ducked back out.

She had slept restlessly, and now, seeing Logan, she cursed herself for ever believing that he would've been find handling the new information on his own.

Logan looked like he had been hit by a truck, sucked under a train, and then spit back out, only to get hit by the truck again. His plaid shirt was missing, and his wife beater was soaked with blood. His jeans were torn slightly, and his shoes were flopping a bit in the places where the rubber was no longer molded together. His face appeared to have aged ten years within the past twenty-four, eyes drooping and lines on his face becoming more prominent. 

Marie was ready to jump to her feet and run to him. Instead of walking her way, Logan walked past her and the gawking children and staff of the mansion and went outside, disappearing around a bend in the garden. Marie quickly followed, figuring Logan wanted more privacy. 

When she stepped outside, she shivered violently. The wind nipped harshly at her skin, unforgiving. She considered going back inside for a jacket, but the choice was made for her when Storm stepped outside and handed her jacket to Marie. 

"I saw Logan this morning," Storm whispered, looking extremely concerned. "Professor tried to speak with him, but Logan was too out of it. I don't know what was in those files you picked up," she shook her head, "but I do know that right now he needs you more than ever. You'll have to be patient."

Marie nodded, clutching Storm's jacket to her chest, glancing at the garden.

"The Professor said that the next few weeks, maybe even months, and in the worst case scenario, years, from now, Logan's memories will come back like a flood. No doubt some of the names and information in the files triggered something within in. It's only a matter of time before he starts to remember other things. And when he remembers his past, he might not like what he finds."

Storm was a good woman, Marie thought. She was trying to protect Logan, obviously on his side. Jean and Scott probably had better things to do than worry about the resident feral. Storm smiled sadly and quietly wished Marie good luck before stepping back inside, closing the door behind her.

Taking a deep breath, Marie shrugged on Storm's thick jacket and pulled the hood over her head before making her way to the gardens.

She found Logan directly in the center, laying on his back, staring up at the sky. He was still, so still that if she didn't know any better, she'd think he was dead. She slowly walked forward and laid down next to him, hand twitching, dying to reach out and grasp his hand in hers, to tell him that it was going to be okay.

Logan didn't speak for a long time. Marie was sure it was hours that they sat out there in silence, just staring up at the twinkling stars, the full moon, and feeling the slightly damp grass against the back of her neck. She tried to imagine a world different from the one she lived in, maybe one where she and Logan didn't meet because she was a mutant on the run. Instead, she could have met him in a bar, her hair thrown seductively over her shoulder, Logan's eyes taking her in. Or maybe she'd bump into Logan one day while she was out shopping, and he would help her gather her things, his gruff voice hypnotizing her as he muttered apologies.

"Eighteen twenty six."

"What?" Marie asks.

"That's the year I was born."

_Shit._

Marie tries not to react outwardly, but she gasps because _fucking Christ._  Of course, after her talk with the Logan in her head, this information wasn't really a shocker, but she hadn't wanted to believe it. She didn't want to believe that Logan had lost one hundred and seventy four years worth of memory. One hundred and seventy four years of his life that were a mystery to him. And if his nightmares were anything to go by, his life hadn't been a walk in the park either. The Logan in her head had already told her this, glossing over a few things that he had deemed to be less important, and she kind of wished that the Logan in her head was also the Logan in real life, because the Logan in her head wasn't so angry and knew who he was and wasn't suffering, and she'd give anything for Logan to not suffer anymore. 

It was terrifying, to know that even just knowing the year he was born was enough to knock the immovable man on his back, stunned.

"Logan," Marie murmurs. "If you were born in eighteen twenty six, that means you're-"

"One hundred and seventy four years old."

He was eerily calm about it. Maybe he's still digesting the information. Marie reaches out to take his hand and finds that he's shaking. She looks back up at his face and her heart shatters at the sight before her: Logan fighting back tears, teeth digging into his bottom lip so hard it was starting to bleed. She threw her arms around him, and that was all it took. He broke down in her arms, sobbing, squeezing her too tight, but she let him have this moment, she gladly gave him this moment because it's better than the alternative. He could have kept his emotions inside until he exploded. This was a much healthier choice, and she hugged him back as hard as he could. Logan cried into her hair, hiccuping occasionally.

When he calmed down, Marie pulled away slightly. His arms tightened around her instinctively, but when he realized she wasn't getting up, he relaxed a little.

"Now," Marie smiled softly, brushing his sweaty hair away from his forehead. Logan's eyes were red and puffy, but quickly disappeared, his healing factor refusing to even let him mourn properly. "Tell me all about it."

* * *

There were some parts that Logan didn't want to discuss, and Marie didn't push him. He was going through a lot. Whenever he wanted to avoid a subject he sat in silence and glared at the grass until Marie switched the subject.

He'd told her about the mutant Wraith, a friend of his that had part of his spine ripped out by Victor Creed, otherwise known as Sabretooth. When Logan told her that bit of information, he looked a bit green and as if he wanted to tell her something else, but quickly decided against it. He whispered things about Blob and a kid named Wade that someone named Stryker had fucked up beyond belief. He dryly tells me that he rescued a bunch of kids once that were locked in cages, and when he quietly mentioned that one of the kids shot lasers from his eyes, Marie gripped his arm.

"No way!" she gasps. "You saved Scott? Did he know it was you?"

Logan scoffed. "From what the files say, Scott had bandages over his eyes, so he didn't see me. Besides, even if he had heard my voice, it could have forgotten it. It's been years since this happened. Fifteen, I think. And I don't even remember what happened, so it's not like I can remind him."

"You could blackmail him with this," Marie giggles.

"I also think I met the younger version of Emma Frost."

"Oh god," she groans. "I bet she was a bitch, too."

That makes him smile, and Marie feels her chest feel with warmth. She knows he's not over it, not by a long shot, but he's certainly handling it better than he was about three hours ago. He was allowing small smiles to grace his face, and he no longer looked like he was one step away from passing out. His eyes were still dark with the weight of the past, but for now, all was good.

"Thanks," Logan muttered gruffly, cheeks reddening.

Marie lean forward, hands cupping his face.  
"You don't have to thank me," she whispers.

He grasps his bare hands with her gloved ones and pulls her closer so that she was almost on his lap. Logan pressed his lips to hers for a second before pulling away, the veins in his face losing their prominence. Her lips tingle. Marie smile and snuggles onto his chest, glad that she had Storm's jacket to cover her so that they could be this close, even if for only a moment.

"You're all I've got," he whispers against her hair, arms around around her waist, and Marie's heart aches for him, because she know it's true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to leave comments telling me what you think!


	16. Sixteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stryker plans and Gambit makes an appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.
> 
> Author's Note: So sorry for the lack of updates over the summer, been really busy with a required summer program for school and homework!

**Sixteen**

* * *

Stryker stood in the threshold of the door that looked out over the waterfall behind the facility. 

It had been a few days since the break in. He had his men search the place for anything of importance that was missing, but they could find nothing. Expensive equipment remained where it was, albeit a bit damaged. The second basement had walls made of metal, so the telepath that was here was unable to detect that there were mutant prisoners below them.

Many of the men suffered at the hands of the telepath, unable to recall their faces or the codenames they used. It didn't matter to Stryker, because he had recognized two, and that was all he needed.

Scott Summers and Logan Howlett. 

It had been almost fifteen years since he'd seen either of them, but he'd recognize them anywhere. Scott, instead of a bandage around his eyes, had a high tech visor that rested on his face, giving him control over his powers. He was no longer the little boy Stryker had kept prisoner before. He had captured Scott at a public high school and brought him here, just like he did with many other young mutants.

And Logan. Stryker smiled. Logan hadn't aged a day. And even after all these years, Logan still didn't remember anything past the last fifteen years. It was a little startling to see Logan teamed up with other mutants. The last time Logan was teamed up with mutants, he left because he couldn't handle the carnage, which Stryker thought was pretty ridiculous since Logan himself was feral. These mutants were organized though. They wore uniforms, symbolizing a unit.

"Sir," a voice startled Stryker out of his thoughts. 

"Hm?"

"We think we found something."

Stryker followed the younger soldier, the stitched fabric on his shirt read Owen, farther into the facility and into the room he had pumped Logan full of the adamantium. Up the stairs they went and to...the file room? The door was open and two soldiers stood on either side of the door.

"What did you find in the file room?" Stryker asked.

Owen frowned.  
"One of the researchers told us that they kept files on every mutant that's ever been in this facility or another. He went through the files and said that the files from the Weapon X project were missing."

Stryker froze, jaw clenching.  
"All of the Weapon X files are gone?"

Owen nodded. "Affirmative. Also," Owen looked considerably more nervous now, taking a step back from Stryker.

"What?" he barked.

Swallowing, Owen murmured, "The file on Jason Stryker is also missing."

All Stryker knew then was red.

* * *

"Sir," Owen pleaded, "Please, calm down!"

"Do you know what this means?" Stryker snarled at the head researcher, Dr. Culdicott. 

Culdicott shook his head. "No. How are a couple of missing files going to affect us?"

"Think, you idiot!" Stryker roared. "Those files are filled to the brim with information on mutants and how we experimented on them! What's worse, is that it will be impossible for us to deny our involvement when we signed those papers!"

Culdicott paled, horror settling over his face.

Stryker paced, heart pounding. Everything was falling apart, just because of some papers. Those files contained information about Team X, the team he had created, and then tore apart to create Weapon X, otherwise known as Deadpool. The experiments had to be signed off on after the doctors assessed the capacity of the captives; finding how high or low their pain threshold was, the mental and emotional strength, etc. All of those papers had his signatures and his own notes, alongside Dr. Culdicott. And not only that, but the location of where those experiments took place were also on the papers, along with the days they happened on.

If these mutants went to the government, he will have now way to deny his guilt. They had solid proof not only on Weapon X, but on what he did to his own son and the mutant inhibiting technology he created.

What really unsettled him was how Logan managed to find the place. The bullet Stryker had hit him with wiped everything, yet was it possible that he coming into contact with pieces of his past triggered a revival of his memories?

Taking a deep breath, Stryker sank into a chair, his knees aching. Owen, who stood in the room as a guard, offered Stryker a cold bottle of water.

"Should we run?" Dr. Culdicott asked.

"No point," Stryker stated after taking a swig. "They have proof of what we've done. Even if we clean the place out, they'll put us on the Most Wanted List. And where would we go? Too many of our facilities were listed in those files. They'll know where to look for us. They have our names, possibly pictures of our faces. I know they have pictures of the mutants, as they were included with each one's file."

"We cannot stay here," Culdicott reminded him. "They know where we are. This base is the one we use the most. They'd look here first."

They fell silent. Stryker looked off into space, thinking deeply. What could he do to insure his survival? There were many people, human and mutant alike, that would love nothing more than to tear his head off, Logan being number one on that list. He shuddered when he thought of his fate in Logan's hands, and it only worsened when he wondered if Logan and Victor had ever made up. One feral was bad enough, and Logan at least had some morals. But with Victor on his side, there'd be nothing but strips of skin and blood splattered on the wall to go into his casket.

What he needed was something to shift the focus from him and keep the mutants busy while he got away, preferably to another country. 

"Doctor," Stryker whispered. "Give me all the files on the mutants whose DNA we took for Weapon X."

* * *

Pouring over the files, it came to him. This is what could give him enough time to gather his resources and start up operations somewhere else, hopefully somewhere Logan couldn't find him. He still didn't have an explanation for how Logan found him in the first place, but that was for another time.

"Did you find something we could use?" Dr. Culdicott asked from his spot on the other side of the table, hands folded. "I've already told the soldiers to pack up the big equipment so we can move it to our new location when ready."

Stryker hummed.  
"I found a file of a mutant that we captured but whose DNA we never used for Weapon X."

"There were several of those mutants," Culdicott points out, frowning. "How is this one special?"

Grinning, Stryker pulled out another file and slid it across the table to the doctor.

"A long time ago, Magneto, otherwise known as Erik Lensherr, survivor of the Holocaust and instigator of the Cuban Missile Crisis, was taken into custody after killing President John F. Kennedy. When he was taken, DNA was taken from him to keep him on file, as he was one of the few mutants who made it a decade after the Cuban Missile Crisis."

"What happened to the others?" he inquired. "This file says Magneto was formerly affliated with a Professor X, Banshee, Angel, Havok, Beast, and Mystique, but after the crisis, he, Mystique, and Angel branched off to form their own group with the three mutants that were previously in the Hellfire Club."

"Indeed," Stryker replied. "The Brotherhood, they called themselves. You are right in asking those questions; we can rule out some people as suspects for who broke in here. Banshee, Angel, Azazel, Riptide, and Emma Frost were killed before and after Erik was arrested. They were questioned and experimented on by Bolivar Trask, another man such as ourselves, who sought answers in the mutant gene. This is where I got this information.

"Anyways, after looking through these files, imagine my surprise when Pietro Maximoff, also called Quicksilver, has a similar DNA structure to Magneto."

"A-Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"Yes, doctor. Magneto has a son, although I'm sure he's ignorant of the fact. But not just a son. Quicksilver has two other siblings who he managed to hide from me, Lorna and Wanda. I don't know if Lorna is a mutant, but I have a hunch Wanda is, considering she and Pietro are twins."

"You are a genius!" Dr. Culdicott roars with laughter. "You let this information out to the public, it'll be a man hunt for Magneto's children, to teach him a lesson."

"Exactly my plan. Magneto doesn't know he has children, but when words gets out, along with the DNA tests as evidence, he'll drive himself into the ground trying to find the three before the anti-mutant protesters do. Professor X, the leader of the X-Men and direct enemy of Magneto, will also join the hunt. From what I've heard, the Professor will do anything to protect innocent children from the corrupting clutches of Magneto."

* * *

Really, a few days of silence had been nice.

It was quite relaxing to worry about nothing but classes and whose turn it was to have the remote to worry about. It was actually quite boring in the mansion for about four days, and it was a nice change. 

Logan hadn't run off, although he was a bit withdrawn, running on about two hours of sleep because the nightmares were fucking up his sleep schedule. Marie stayed by his side through it all, even when his exhaustion caused him to lash out. Logan, Marie, Jean, Scott, and Hank knew they should be worried about the consequences of their actions as Alkali Lake, but they were too busy enjoying their four days of down time. They were all too happy to let Logan recover from whatever was bothering him and then worry about Stryker later. Even the Professor agreed that, after days of searching and still no sign of the soldiers that attacked Marie and Logan, a break was in order.

They should've been worried.

On the fourth day, the X-Men and a few of the mansion's many children were in the TV room, waiting for Storm to pick a channel. Marie closed the curtain to prevent the sun from making a glare on the TV and settled in Logan's lap, pleased when his muscled arm wrapped around her waist and held her tight. She'd been worried that he would leave her. Professor, in his wheelchair, was frowning, looking in the direction of the patio doors.

"Turn it on the news," he ordered. "I feel...an excitement nearby."

Storm tapped in the number for the news channel and Marie gasped as William Stryker stood on a podium in front of hundreds of people, looking quite pleased with himself.

" _Shit_ ," Logan snarled, pushing Marie so she sat on his leg and didn't block the TV. 

* * *

Standing before the crowd of people, Stryker felt all his worries ease away. He was a little worried about presenting the information himself, but figured that it wouldn't matter either way, since dozens of mutants had seen his face and escaped. Hiding wouldn't make much of a difference. Taking a deep breath, Stryker loosened his tie and smiled at the cameras. There was an area for the camera crews and news channels, and on the side, separated by metal barriers, the public stood with bated breath. The cameras create a panoramic image of him; his face was plastered on several screens. 

"Hello. My name is William Stryker, and I asked for this press conference because I found information that I could not keep to myself. It is the right of the American people, and the people of the world, to learn what I have."

A camera flash blinded him and he flinched, squinting his eyes. Someone mumbled sorry from the front row. Clearing his throat, he continued.

"As I'm sure everyone knows, I run several military bases where experiments in the name of science take place. Recently, we started conducting experiments on mutants." Murmurs started and Stryker held up a hand to silence them. "These mutants were not innocent people, and instead hostile individuals who used their powers for evil. Just four days ago, one of my bases in Canada was invaded by a small team of mutants I believe call themselves the X-Men. No one was permanently harmed, but information was taken from me. 

"This act of violence against me and my men has encouraged me to speak up. I thought I was doing the right thing by remaining silent, but now I know that no matter what I do, these people will continue to be volatile and hostile, even towards those that want to help."

Stryker paused and gave a flashdrive to the head of the camera crew, quietly telling him to load it on the screen when he gave the signal.

"I'm sure all of you know the mutant Magneto." Angry shouts rise from the crowd before they fall silent, eager to hear what this man has to say. "We all know what he is capable of. He does not show mercy. When he kills, it does not matter if you are a woman or a child. If you would please consider my words as you look to the screens around me." He nods at the camera man, and images of the DNA tests are blown up. "This is why I was very stunned to find that Magneto, also known as Erik Lensherr, has not one, but possibly three children."

Questions were screamed at him from the roar of the crowd. Children in their mother's arms cried as men angrily pounded shoved against the metal barriers, trying to tear through only to be stopped half-heartedly by police officers.

"I know this is shocking," Stryker yells over the noise. He waits until the noise quiets to an angry murmur before he says. "One of the violent, criminal mutants I had in my custody was a Mr. Pietro Maximoff, also known as Quicksilver. A DNA test proved that he is in fact Magneto's son. I'll take questions now."

"Stryker!" A woman from ABC news screams, shoving her way past a poor soul so violently that her elbow nearly takes his eye out. "Why did you say Magneto has three children? The DNA tests only show two people. Who are the other two children?"

"Wanda is Pietro's twin sister," Stryker explains. "It would be nearly impossible for only one of them to be a mutant as their DNA would nearly identical. They have a younger sister, Lorna. I am not sure if Lorna is even Magneto's daughter, as we don't have any of her DNA to link to the current samples."

"Mr. Stryker!" A man from FOX news yells. "How can you only have the DNA from one of the twins? Were they not together when they were arrested?"

"Pietro was able to get Wanda and Lorna to safety, sacrificing himself in the process. We have been unable to locate the two females, and trying to do so now would prove impossible since we don't have a picture of them."

"How did Quicksilver escape custody?"

"The leader of the X-Men, Professor Charles Xavier," Stryker growls. "This man helped dangerous people escape custody and no doubt set them free."

"Why did you have mutant captives in the first place?"

"A very good question," Stryker nods. "At the time, it was not illegal to experiment on mutants. It was even encouraged. I actually haven't experimented on a mutant since fifteen years ago, when there was no law to protect them."

"Mr. Stryker! Can you-"

* * *

Logan watches, panic building in his chest.

Stryker smiles at the cameras as if he's this great guy who never did anything wrong. He looks so at ease up there, and instantly Logan knows that that man has information. Powerful information. 

 _"Hello,"_ Stryker says. _"My name is William Stryker, and I asked for this press conference because I found information that I could not keep to myself. It is the right of the American people, and the people of the world,to learn what I have."_ A camera flash blinds him momentarily, and he narrows his eyes. Clearing his throat, he continues, _"As I'm sure everyone knows, I run several military bases where experiments in the name of science take place." Everyone in the room scoffed. "Recently, we started conduction experiments on mutants." A tiny murmur of protests can be heard over the TV. Stryker holds up a hand and they fall silent._

_"These mutants were not innocent people, and instead hostile individuals who used their powers for evil. Just four days ago, one of my bases in Canada was invaded by a small team of mutants I believe call themselves the X-Men. No one was permanently harmed, but information was taken from me. This act of violence against me and my men has encouraged me to speak up. I thought I was doing the right thing by remaining silent, but now I know that no matter what I do, these people will continue to be volatile and hostile, even towards those that want to help."_

Stryker paused to give a small flashdrive to who Marie assumed was the man in charge of the large screens.

 _"I'm sure all of you know the mutant Magneto."_ Angry shouts can be heard from the crowd before they fall silent. Marie growls in her throat. _"We all know what he is capable of. He does not show mercy. When he kills, it does not matter if you are a woman or a child. If you would please consider my words as you look to the screens around me."_ Stryker nods at the camera man, and in the corner of the shot, they can see him type something on a small computer before images of a DNA test are blown up. _"_ _This is why I was very stunned to find that Magneto, also known as Erik Lensherr, has not one, but possibly three children."_

The reaction of the crowd couldn't be heard over the horrified cries of the children in the room. Jubilee whipped her head around to stare at Professor, eyes accusing. Kitty whimpered and gripped another student's hand tightly. The younger children cried and ran into the arms of an adult, having heard the stories and seen the footage of how far Erik was willing to go. Scott felt his body turn cold at the very thought of mini Magneto's running around. One was more than enough.

Logan didn't react physically, too busy staring at the screen where men tried to get past the metal barriers and get shoved back by police officers. But on the inside, he was screaming. Magneto was an asshole, and after their various encounters, he could easily determine that Magneto was the kind of man to smile to your face as he ripped out your child's small intestine while acting like _he_ was the victim. Which raised the very important question of _who in their right mind would have sex with Magneto?_

 _"I know this is shocking,"_ Stryker yells over the noise. He waits until the noise dies down before he says. _"One of the violent, criminal mutants I had in my custody was a Mr. Pietro Maximoff, also known as Quicksilver. A DNA test proved that he is in fact Magneto's son. I'll take questions now."_

A woman from ABC almost blinds a man as she screams, _"Stryker! Why did you say Magneto has three children? The DNA tests only show two people. Who are the other two children?"_

 _"Wanda is Pietro's twin sister,"_ Stryker explains. _"It would be nearly impossible for only one of them to be a mutant as their DNA would nearly identical. They have a younger sister, Lorna. I am not sure if Lorna is even Magneto's daughter, as we don't have any of her DNA to link to the current samples."_

 _"Mr. Stryker!"_ A man from FOX news yells. _"How can you only have the DNA from one of the twins? Were they not together when they were arrested?"_

_"Pietro was able to get Wanda and Lorna to safety, sacrificing himself in the process. We have been unable to locate the two females, and trying to do so now would prove impossible since we don't have a picture of them."_

_"How did Quicksilver escape custody?"_

_"The leader of the X-Men, Professor Charles Xavier,"_ Stryker growls. _"This man helped dangerous people escape custody and no doubt set them free."_

_"Why did you have mutant captives in the first place?"_

"A very good question," Stryker says. _"At the time, it was not illegal to experiment on mutants. It was even encouraged. I actually haven't experimented on a mutant since fifteen years ago, when there was no law to protect them."_

_"Mr. Stryker! Can you-"_

* * *

Professor rips the remote from Storm's hand and turns it off. His face, normally full of life, is ghostly pale. He looks like he's going to vomit, and a few children move away from him, terrified of being caught in the crossfire. 

Before anyone can panic, Professor looks at Scott and says, "Prepare for our departure."

"Professor!" Hank protests. "We cannot run away!"

"Why should we run anyway?" Marie asks. 

"Do you not understand what is happening?" Professor roars. The room falls silent, children trembling with fear. "He has used my name and has named me as an accomplice to the freeing of dangerous criminals. You and I know that, criminals or not, those mutants were being tortured to death. But do you think the public will listen?"

"How does that-"

"My name is plastered all over this school, the brochures. It won't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together. And when they come for me, do you think they'll be content with just me? They'll take all of us, even the children. I have no doubt that as soon as Stryker said my name, people are gathering to come for us as we speak. We also have to be prepared for the parents that want their children back home." Taking a deep breath, he tells Hank, "If you would be so kind as to put all the school's files on a flashdrive, even the hardcopies." 

Logan tugs Marie away, following the rest of the X-Men out into the corridor to tell the children to pack their things. In their room, Marie neatly folds her clothes and puts them in a duffel bag. 

"Why are we leaving at midnight?" she asks Logan, watching as he carefully wraps his Cuban cigars in one of his many plaid shirts before tucking it away in his bag. "It won't take us long to pack."

"We have to disinfect everything," Logan explains. "When the people come for us, and they will, they'll try to find DNA. We have to burn the bedding, bleach the floors. We even have to wash the walls. Professor wants us to clean everything first before he flushes the pipes."

"This is crazy," Marie whispered, heart pounding. "How did it come to this?"

Logan sighs, looking out into the hallway, waiting for a vacuum. "It would always come to this. It's the one thing Magneto was right about: eventually, the humans would turn on his completely. Even the Professor knew. He's been ready."

"And how are we supposed to get out of here?" Marie demands. "There are a lot of us."

"Logan," Scott appears in the doorway, handing the feral mutant a vacuum and some cleaning supplies. He looks at Marie. "After considering the parents that want their children home, and yes, they've called already, the Professor is having Storm and I take those children and drop them off. We're going to regroup and meet at Professor's private airplane."

"The Blackbird?"

"No," Scott said. "Hank's flying that and hiding it in a safe location. The airplane is big enough for all of us. Professor has connections, and at the private airplane will be a pilot."

"Why are we having a regular pilot?" Logan asks. "Jean can't fly the plane?"

Scott shakes his head, leaning in the against the door frame.  
"Having a regular pilot fly the plane can help us avoid questions. I have to go help with clean up. I hope you'll do the same?" Without another word, Scott leaves.

"He was surprisingly civil to me," Logan notes.

Marie looks away, hoping Logan doesn't question Scott's friendly attitude. Everyone was still treading as lightly as possible around Logan.

"Come on," Logan says, picking up their bags and tugging them out the room and down the hallway.

Following him, Marie's eyes widened when she saw part of the wall open and a secret passageway in its place. Colossus and Kitty stood in the wall, taking bags from students and giving them to other students in the wall who then ran down and disappeared into the passageway. Seeing her confused look, Kitty explained, "There are some cars in the woods behind the mansion that are built for traveling in a rugged terrain. We're putting the bags in there, and after we clean the place up, we're gonna evacuate. Oh! Logan, Storm told me to tell you to watch the door. We're expecting some help."

Nodding, Logan whispered to Marie, "Be careful. Stay close to the others," before he ran off towards the front door.

Marie helped with the bags, lifting the heavier ones. 

"I'm so scared," Kitty says casually. "I'm holding it in but the second we get somewhere safe, I'm going to cry for hours."

"I'm glad you're being honest about it," Marie replied. "I don't know what to feel. It's a mix between horrified and annoyed. This Stryker guy has done enough damage and now he decides to pull something like this." She looked at the tall, muscular boy. "What do you think, Peter?"

Peter frowned, eyes darting to the left to make sure the younger kids didn't overhear him before he leaned in and whispered, "I think the Professor already knew."

Kitty practically threw the bag she was holding at a kid who Marie thought was named James, who nearly fell over from the impact.

 _"What?"_ Kitty hissed. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard you say, Peter! The Professor wouldn't keep something like that a secret!"

"Why else would he be so eager to get us out of here then?" Peter retorted.

"He's trying to keep us safe," Marie said uncertainly. Honestly, she wasn't sure what to think. She had always thought Professor Xavier to be calm and level headed, and him jumping at the immediate evacuation of the mansion didn't look too good.

"Look," Peter sighed, picking up speed as he grabbed bags. "I think something is going on. I went into my room to finish watching the rest of the news on my tablet. Stryker said something about Alkali Lake. That's where the Professor sent Logan once for information on his past, right? All I'm saying is that the Professor is involved in this mess, and I don't want to get caught in the crossfire."

* * *

The mansion had lost its homey feeling, Logan noted as he waited in the entrance hall for the mysterious visitors Professor had called. The kitchen, after the food had been evenly divided and distributed to the getaway vehicles, had been bleached from ceiling to floor, the tables and chairs included in the cleansing. The living room was bare of couches and the wires from the TV had been cut clean of. The carpet had been vacuumed and the paintings all around the house were wrapped in protective covering and packed away. 

The doorbell rang and Logan briskly strode towards the door and, careful to use his sleeve on the door, yanked it open.

Two men walked in and Logan frowned. Had the SOS the Professor sent out only gotten two replies? What did Charles hope to accomplish with just two people?

"Alex!" Charles called out, wheeling himself down the hallway. Jubilee and another student, Miranda, trailed behind him, carrying boxes upon boxes of things from the Professor's bedroom and office. "Just take the boxes to Peter and Kitty, thank you." Off they went. "I'm glad you could make it."

"It wouldn't be the first time I had to save your non-feeling ass from danger," Alex remarked, swaggering forward and leading the way to the patio doors just down the hall. 

Logan guffawed. He liked the guy already. Alex looked a little familiar; at the very least, the facial structure of the man looked like he'd seen it somewhere before. Logan and the stranger followed Alex and the Professor out to the patio. Alex leaped over the balcony and strode towards the pile of sheets and couches. At first, Logan thought Alex was dancing; Alex had sort of rolled his entire body in a full circle, creating a bright red ring of pure energy that he launched at the piles of fabric, followed by three more. 

Mouth agate, Logan eyed the man next to him and wondered what he could do. He looked familiar, nothing he could place immediately. The slicked back, dark brown hair and smirk was something he couldn't get out of his head. The man held a staff in his hand that was encrusted with elegant jewels. Vaguely, Logan recalls shredding through a metal fire escape, sitting at a card table in dim lighting, the whirring of helicopter blades.

"Do I know you?" Logan blurts.

"That depends," the man grins, a devious look in his eye.

"On what?"

"Do I owe you money?"

And Logan knows him. It's on the tip of his tongue, memories flooding forward, memories of falling off a concrete slab high in the sky, a man hitting the concrete with his staff and shattering it to pieces before it can land on Logan. And he knows, knows who this man is, what they've been through, feels relief spread through his body because maybe his brain isn't broken after all if he can remember this person, someone he'd only known for days.

_"Gambit."_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Leave reviews!


End file.
